FANTASY LOVE STORY
A Novel by Sage Sahil
Prologue: The Dream That Refused to Die
I've always loved sleep.
Not because I was tired of living — but because my dreams felt more honest than reality. In dreams, no one pretends. No one hides behind pride. No one is afraid to cry.
On July 1, 2025, I had a dream that changed everything.
I was standing alone in the middle of an empty road. The sky was gray, not stormy — just heavy, like it was holding back something painful.
Then she appeared.
She walked toward me slowly. Her head was lowered. Tears rolled down her cheeks without hesitation, as if she had already cried too much to care who saw.
I don't know why, but I asked her,
"Why are you crying?"
She looked at me. And in that one look, I saw exhaustion… longing… and a silent scream.
"Because," she said softly, "no one values me anymore."
Her voice didn't break. It was calm. And that calmness hurt more than tears.
I told her something I didn't even know I believed:
"Love is beautiful. But only when both hearts can carry its weight. If someone can't give you time, maybe it isn't cruelty. Maybe it's just that they don't understand the depth of what you feel."
For a moment, she just stared at me.
And then—
I woke up.
Chapter One: The Girl Who Stole My Sleep
I thought I would see her again the next night.
I didn't.
Not the next night.
Not the next week.
Not even the next month.
What made it worse was this — I used to dream every single night.
After her, my dreams disappeared.
It felt as if I had left her alone on that road. And somewhere in the back of my mind, I was certain she was still standing there… crying.
Regret is strange. It doesn't shout. It whispers.
And that whisper took away my sleep.
Chapter Two: The World Inside My Mind
When reality refuses to cooperate, imagination becomes a refuge.
I began creating a place inside my mind — a quiet world where I could meet her again.
This time, she wasn't just a stranger.
She had a name.
Rida.
The first time she told me, she smiled shyly. It was the kind of smile that tries to hide pain but fails.
"Hi," I said. "I'm Sahil."
In that world, we talked for hours. About small things. About fears. About memories. About love.
And that's when I learned about him.
Sufiyan.
She loved him the way drowning people love air.
Completely. Desperately. Without limits.
And I loved her silently.
Chapter Three: Loving Someone Who Loves Someone Else
There is a special kind of pain in loving someone who belongs to another story.
Rida would come to me with swollen eyes and trembling hands.
"He doesn't understand me," she would whisper.
But she never blamed him.
She blamed herself.
Sufiyan hurt her often. Emotionally. Sometimes physically. He took her devotion for granted because he knew she would never leave.
Fear is powerful.
And she was afraid of losing him.
One night, she told me something that made my chest tighten.
"We've been intimate," she said quietly. "Twice. But I didn't feel loved. I just felt… empty."
I didn't judge her.
I didn't question her.
I just listened.
And when I didn't know how to fix her pain, I did the only thing I could.
I started writing stories for her.
I called them Chapters.
In those stories, she was cherished. Protected. Understood.
For a few minutes, she would smile.
And that smile became my purpose.
Chapter Four: The Night Everything Changed
One evening, after a long silence between her and Sufiyan, she said something unexpected.
"Sahil… I want Chapter Four."
I laughed softly. "Okay. Who's your partner this time?"
She went quiet.
The silence felt different.
Then she said my name.
"Sahil."
The world inside my chest stopped moving.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
She looked at me with steady eyes.
"Yes."
That night wasn't about desire.
It was about tenderness.
In Chapter Four, I loved her gently. I kissed her pain away. I held her like something fragile but sacred. I didn't cross boundaries. I didn't chase satisfaction.
Because real love doesn't rush.
It respects.
When it ended, she whispered,
"If only this wasn't just a story."
That was the first night I allowed myself to hope.
Chapter Five: The Yes That Wasn't Mine
I confessed my feelings soon after.
And she said yes.
For a few days, I lived inside sunlight.
But love has shadows.
One afternoon, she told me she had started meeting Sufiyan again.
I felt something crack inside me.
But I didn't complain.
Because when you love someone deeply, their happiness becomes your oxygen.
And sometimes that oxygen burns.
Chapter Six: The Collapse
The day he left her was brutal.
He told her her love suffocated him.
He told her he never promised forever.
She begged him not to go.
She cried in front of him.
He walked away anyway.
That kind of rejection doesn't just break the heart.
It fractures the soul.
She stopped talking.
Stopped smiling.
Stopped living.
I didn't know any of this.
Until her sister told me.
By the time I reached her, she was drowning in silence.
And I hated myself for not being there sooner.
Chapter Seven: The World I Built For Her
I made a decision that day.
If the world hurt her, I would build another one.
Not physically.
But emotionally.
I became her shield.
Her quiet strength.
Her reminder that she mattered.
Slowly, the girl who once cried in my dreams began to breathe again.
She laughed one day.
A small laugh.
But it felt like victory.
She started calling me "Professor."
I never asked why.
Some things are better left poetic.
Chapter Eight: The Understanding
Time passed.
She realized something on her own.
"If I could sacrifice everything for someone who never loved me," she said one evening, "why can't I give the same patience to someone who does?"
That was the moment I knew she had healed.
Not because she chose me.
But because she chose herself.
Epilogue: What Love Really Is
Love is not possession.
It's not desperation.
It's not begging someone to stay.
Love is patience.
It is sacrifice.
It is choosing someone every single day — even when it's hard.
And sometimes, love is letting someone go… and still praying for them.
Rida and I didn't just find each other.
We earned each other.
And that is why our story was never just fantasy.
It was faith.
THE END