The night was sharper than glass.
A cruel wind swept across the snow-covered riverbank, biting through the wool coats of two patrolling officers. Their flashlights pierced the mist, thin beams of yellow cutting through the pale silence.
"Another wild goose chase," muttered Inspector Raghav, stamping his boots against the frozen earth. "That shepherd boy must've been seeing things."
Constable Mehra grunted, too tired to argue. He had been in the force long enough to know that most midnight calls led to nothing but shadows. But tonight… felt different.
The beam of his torch stopped suddenly.
"Sir," he whispered. "Look."
At first, it seemed like a trick of the ice — a shape beneath the frozen river, a smear of white caught in the current. But as the mist thinned, the figure grew clearer.
A woman.
Her body was curled as if in sleep, her long black hair fanning out like ink in water. The ice encased her in crystal purity, preserving her skin as pale as moonlight. She was naked, yet untouched by decay. Her lips glowed faintly red, and her eyelids — shut gently as if resisting a dream — made her appear hauntingly alive.
"God in heaven," Raghav breathed, stepping closer. "She's… beautiful."
Mehra swallowed, his throat dry. Beautiful was not the right word. She was otherworldly — too flawless for a corpse, too perfect for the frozen filth of the river.
The officers exchanged a glance. No words were needed. With careful strikes, they broke the ice and dragged her body onto the snow. It was shockingly heavy, as if the ice clung to her even outside the water.
As Raghav wrapped her in a white sheet, his boot struck something half-buried near where she had lain. He bent, pulled it free, and found an old book — its leather cover cracked with age, the title pressed faintly in faded gold:
"The Story of Elizabeth."
Neither man spoke. The night seemed to close around them, heavier with every breath.
They carried both the body and the book into the waiting police van, the air inside turning colder the moment she was laid down.
And though neither officer dared to say it aloud, both felt it —
She was not finished with this world.