Aadhya Sharma hated mornings.
Not because of school.
Not because of homework.
But because mornings meant mirrors.
She stood in front of the small mirror hanging on her bedroom wall, staring at her reflection. Same tired eyes. Same loose braid. Same girl who never seemed enough.
Outside, Delhi traffic had already started its daily war. Honks. Vendors shouting. The normal noise of a normal world.
A world where she did not fit.
"Aadhya! Jaldi karo, you'll be late!" her mother called from the kitchen.
"I'm coming," she replied softly.
Softly.
She always spoke softly.
At school, her voice disappeared completely.
The classroom was loud.
It was always loud before the teacher arrived.
Aadhya slipped into her seat near the window, hoping to go unnoticed.
"Look who finally decided to show up."
Dev Malhotra's voice.
Confident. Casual. Dangerous.
He leaned against the desk in front of her, smiling in a way that wasn't friendly.
"Still afraid of talking?" he asked.
The other students laughed.
Aadhya kept her eyes on her notebook.
Silence was safer.
Dev tapped her desk. "At least look at people when they talk to you."
Her fingers tightened around her pen.
She wanted to say something.
Anything.
But her throat felt locked.
"Leave her," someone muttered from the back — but no one really meant it.
Dev shrugged and walked away.
The laughter faded.
But the heat in her chest didn't.
That night, she dreamed again.
Dark water.
Cold.
Endless.
She stood in the middle of it, unable to move.
Something moved beneath the surface.
Huge.
Ancient.
Watching.
A whisper echoed around her.
You are not small.
The water began to glow faint blue.
Aadhya tried to run — but she had no ground beneath her feet.
Then she saw it.
A serpent made of light, coiling around her.
Not attacking.
Guarding.
She woke up gasping.
Her room was silent.
The clock read 3:17 AM.
Her heart pounded.
"It was just a dream," she whispered.
But her bedsheet felt strangely warm.
Slowly, she turned toward the mirror across the room.
For a split second—
She saw something behind her reflection.
Golden eyes.
Slitted.
Watching.
She spun around.
Nothing.
Empty room.
Her breathing grew uneven.
"I'm imagining things," she told herself.
But when she looked down at her wrist—
A faint blue spark flickered across her skin.
Gone in an instant.
Aadhya froze.
The air felt heavier.
As if something unseen had just noticed her back.
Far beyond the city lights…
Far beyond the sky…
Something ancient shifted in the dark.
And for the first time in seventeen years—
It felt her wake up.