The rooftop was quiet.
No traffic. No people. No witnesses.
Just the hum of old neon lights flickering above Aarya Verma's head — and the wind whispering around her body as she dangled halfway over the edge.
A man's hand gripped her wrist. Sweaty. Shaking.
"Just let go," he hissed through clenched teeth. "Why do you always have to ruin things?"
Her eyes, swollen from tears, met his — not with fear, but with **clarity**.
So this is how it ends.
Not with justice. Not with truth.
Just... silence.
Her fingers slipped.
And the world went black.
---
**Beep. Beep. Beep.**
Aarya's eyes snapped open.
The ceiling was wrong.
Not white and cracked like the hospital. Smooth. Pale cream. Familiar.
Her chest rose in a sharp gasp as she sat up, hands trembling. The sheets around her — floral pink. Her room. Her old room.
The room she hadn't seen in **seven years**.
"No... no, no, no..."
She stumbled to the mirror.
The reflection staring back was **eighteen**.
Rounder face. No scar near her jaw yet. No hollowed-out eyes. No weight of betrayal behind her smile.
She turned to the calendar.
**Monday. July 1st.**
The very day she was accused of cheating in her university entrance exam.
The day everything began to rot.
---
She didn't scream. Didn't cry. She just stared in silence, eyes slowly sharpening like a blade returning to its edge.
"I'm back."
---
It was strange being in this body again — small, vulnerable, too trusting. Her mother yelled from the kitchen like always. Her father left before sunrise. The house smelled of turmeric and worn-out dreams.
But now, it all felt like a set.
A play.
And she? She wasn't the same actress anymore.
---
At school, the halls buzzed with mindless chatter. Friends. Crushes. Gossip. Aarya walked through them like a ghost.
Until she saw him.
**Vedant Malhotra**.
The only person who had defended her when the cheating scandal exploded. The only one who believed her when no one else did. He was standing at his locker, laughing with his friends — not yet marked by the fallout of knowing her.
He hadn't changed. Not yet.
Aarya's eyes softened, just a little. He didn't deserve what happened next — being harassed for supporting her, losing his internship, getting beaten by seniors in the name of "loyalty."
Her fists clenched.
"I won't use you this time," she whispered to herself. "And I won't let them destroy you either."
She passed by without looking twice.
---
Back at home, she opened her laptop.
The first thing she did?
Created a burner email. Then a second. Then an encrypted cloud folder titled: **"Loop\_1: Control"**.
She listed names.
* **Radhika Ghosh** – planted fake answers in her test sheet.
* **Professor Jain** – forged her signature for the expulsion notice.
* **Kabir Ahuja** – the whisperer, the manipulator, the snake behind it all.
She remembered it all.
This time, she wouldn't beg. She wouldn't explain.
She would **document**.
She would **plan**.
She would **dismantle** them — not in one strike, but in **precise, painful cuts**.
No mercy.
No mistakes.
And no story left to tell.
---
As the sun dipped behind the horizon, Aarya sat by her window, sipping water calmly.
Everyone thought the story had ended when she died.
But the truth was…
> **She was born to end it.**