After a long day of pretending everything was normal, Veer finally headed home.
The apartment was warm, filled with the smell of dal and rotis. Sonia was setting the table while little Sina chased her toy car across the floor.
"Veer, wash your hands," Sonia called.
Sina waved at him. "Bhaiyaaa! Come fast, I'm hungry!"
Veer smiled, the kind of smile you wear when you step into a different world — a safer one.
Dinner was light, the usual chatter filling the room.
Sonia talked about a rude customer at work.
Sina proudly described how she drew a cat that looked like "a tiger with a moustache."
Veer nodded, laughed, and acted like a completely ordinary teenage boy.
If they knew what he had done last night…
If they knew who he had fought…
He pushed the thoughts away and finished eating.
On the Way to His Room
He walked down the short hallway toward his bedroom, the lights dim, the house quiet now except for Sina humming in the living room.
Halfway to his door…
something tugged at him.
A strange uneasiness lingering in his chest.
He paused.
For the first time that day — with no classmates, no Suhana, no Mr. Rao around — he felt his mind drifting back into the shadows he had been avoiding.
The riot.
The guns.
Dilip tied in the warehouse.
Gani Bhai's crates — drugs, money, AK-47s…
It all flooded back at once.
He clenched his jaw.
Even though his day had been normal…
his life was anything but.
He reached for his doorknob—
just as his phone buzzed.
Raja had sent a message:
"Veer… call me. It's important."
Veer's heartbeat quickened.
Another buzz came instantly — this one from Suhana:
"Aryan said something today. I think you need to hear it."
Veer stared at the two notifications.
The normal world and the criminal world…
colliding again.
He closed his bedroom door behind him and exhaled.
"Great," he muttered. "What now?"
..........
Veer's phone vibrated again.
He sighed, rubbed his eyes, and answered.
The voice on the other end was tight… trembling.
"Veer… it's about me and Munni."
Raja.
Veer immediately straightened in bed.
Suhana could wait — she complain-calls him for everything, but Raja never sounded like this.
This tone belonged only to danger.
"Tell me."
Raja's breath shuddered for a moment before he spoke:
"We're leaving Mumbai. Me and Munni.
Radhe made the arrangements… a safe house in another city. People he trusts — people not tied to Gani Bhai, Dilip, or any dirty cop."
Veer felt his heart clench… then loosen.
Fear ricocheted through him, then relief.
It was the right choice.
The only choice.
"Good," Veer replied softly. "It's the safest thing."
Raja continued, voice cracking just a bit:
"Munni wants to talk to you… tomorrow.
Before we go."
A lump formed in Veer's throat — unexpected, irritating.
"Fine. I'll come. And Raja—"
"Yeah?"
"Be careful."
"Don't worry, Veer. And thank you… for everything."
The line cut just as Veer's faint smile faded.
.......
The phone rang immediately again.
The name flashing on screen:
"Chatter Box 💬🔥"
Veer groaned.
Then exhaled.
Then picked up.
"Yes, my sweet chatter box. What now?"
Suhana's dramatic voice blasted in his ear:
"VEEEER! Change my name!
Why am I still 'Chatter Box'? Give me something cute. Something elegant. Something that suits your gorgeous girlfriend."
Veer rubbed his forehead but smiled anyway.
"Alright, alright.
But only if I don't have to listen to every gossip story that happens in this galaxy."
"Fine."
She huffed.
A full princess-grade huff.
Then she lowered her voice, as if sharing national secrets.
"Veer… Aryan said something today."
Veer instantly frowned.
"What did he say now?"
"That you have some grand gift ready for Papa's birthday.
Better than anything his friends — even his film industry buddies — could give."
Veer's blood boiled.
Under his breath: "That Aryan mo—"
"LANGUAGE!" Suhana snapped. "He's my BROTHER."
Veer forced his voice calm.
Barely.
"No, no, you heard wrong. I wasn't cursing him.
I was saying… 'that kindest friend' who leaked the secret I told him to keep to himself."
"Hm."
"And the gift isn't fancy.
Also — don't ask me anything till the birthday. Surprise rules."
"Fiiine," she groaned. "But I'll go crazy for a whole month. I'm terrible at keeping secrets."
They talked for over an hour — jokes, complaints, teasing.
Normal teenage things Veer desperately needed to feel human.
Eventually Suhana's mother scolded her for staying up too late, and she hung up.
Silence rushed into Veer's room like cold air.
............
Veer sat cross-legged on his bed.
Breathing slow.
Eyes half-closed.
He needed clarity.
Focus.
Strength.
But tonight… something was wrong.
As soon as he drifted inward, his mind fell — fast — into a darkness deeper than usual.
Like stepping off a cliff in pure night.
He tried to steady his breathing, but—
He couldn't feel his arms.
Or legs.
His body was there, yet not his.
He felt bound, imprisoned inside something that felt like hardened concrete.
Every attempt to move sent waves of pressure through his chest.
His breath hitched.
"What… is this…?"
The darkness pulsed.
And then—
A sound.
Not words.
Not whispering.
A presence calling him…
or pulling him.
He focused.
Carefully.
Slowly.
His heartbeat slowed.
His muscles loosened.
And that's when it hit him —
a sensation like icy fingers sliding through his skin, slipping past bone, piercing straight into the center of who he was.
A violation of something deeper than flesh.
Veer's spine arched involuntarily.
He tried to pull back, to push this thing away, but—
It was already inside.
Inside his mind.
Inside his thoughts.
Inside his soul.
He felt—
A doorway opening.
A memory he didn't remember.
A voice he couldn't hear.
A force he should have never touched.
His breath shattered.
The darkness whispered again — not with sound, but with presence.
Something old.
Something dangerous.
Something that had been waiting.
Veer's last conscious thought before the trance swallowed him:
"finally"