Tanvir always believed silence was harmless.
It didn't shout.It didn't bleed.It didn't kill.
But silence watched.
And tonight… it was watching him.
The streets were unusually empty, even for a city that never truly slept. Streetlights flickered—not broken, just… uncertain. Like something invisible was breathing around them.
Tanvir walked alone.
His footsteps echoed longer than they should have.
One step.Two echoes.
He stopped.
The echoes didn't.
His chest tightened.
"Just imagination," he whispered.
But something inside him disagreed.
Something deeper.
Something older.
A cold sensation crept up his spine as he turned slowly.
Nothing.
Empty road.Still air.Dead silence.
Yet—
He felt seen.
Not like someone looking at him…But like something understanding him.
A sudden memory flashed in his mind—
Blood.
Not fresh.
Dry.
On his hands.
Tanvir blinked rapidly.
"What the hell…"
He checked his hands.
Clean.
No blood.
No cuts.
Nothing.
Then why did it feel so real?
A distant siren broke the silence. Police.
He followed the sound instinctively, as if pulled by something he couldn't resist.
And when he reached the alley—
He froze.
A body lay twisted unnaturally.
Eyes wide open.
Mouth frozen mid-scream.
And on the wall behind—
A symbol.
Drawn in blood.
Tanvir stepped closer… without thinking.
His heart wasn't racing.
It was calm.
Too calm.
His fingers lifted slowly toward the symbol.
And the moment he touched it—
A voice whispered inside his head.
"Welcome back."
Tanvir staggered back.
"What… was that?"
But deep inside—
He already knew.
This wasn't the beginning.
This was a return.