"In the noise of the world, a silence hides,
Behind every smiling face… a glitch resides.
When the first crack appears in logic's wall,
That's when destiny finally reveals it all."
---
[Narrator: "So, ladies and gentlemen—welcome to Delhi! The city has changed, but has Rudh's 'Internal Server Error' been fixed? Oh absolutely not! In fact, the buffering has only gotten worse. Sometimes I feel like our poor Rudh is an old Windows file that 'Ancient Destiny' is forcefully trying to upgrade. Let's see how well chole-bhature pairs with cosmic mystery."]
---
South Delhi's cool air was definitely better than Mumbai's sticky chaos, but for Rudh, peace was an expensive software he simply couldn't afford.
Kabir's guest room was spacious, beautiful… and the silence there carried a strange frequency of its own.
Rudh lay on the bed, eyes closed—but his mind…
his mind was still vibrating at that same 7.83 Hz pulse.
He tried.
He really tried to delete that vision—the smell of ash and soil, the screams of those shadows. But it clung to the back of his mind like corrupted data.
That ground… not mixed with blood, but ash.
Those predators… tearing humans apart like they were nothing more than data points.
"Clear the system, Rudh. Empty the trash," he muttered to himself.
But the harder he tried to forget…
the brighter that violet pulse burned behind his closed eyes.
---
One question kept eating him alive:
What destiny?
There is no variable called "destiny" in physics.
There is only cause… and effect.
So these visions, these voices, this ancient war—
what cause are they the effect of?
Is this just mental exhaustion…
or is some forgotten history being forcefully loaded into his hard drive?
---
[Narrator: "Poor Einstein! He really thinks everything can fit into an equation. He doesn't know—when the Universe writes its code, it doesn't use the keyboard of logic."]
---
A soft knock interrupted his thoughts.
"Rudh beta? You're not asleep, right?"
The door opened slightly, and Mami ji (Kabir's mother) stepped in.
Warm. Comforting. Exactly as Kabir had described.
There was a kind of affection in her eyes that Rudh rarely experienced in Mumbai's fast-paced life.
"No, Mami… just resting a bit," Rudh said, sitting up and fixing his messy hair.
"Kabir was saying you seem a little off. Too much study pressure in Mumbai?" she asked gently, placing her hand on his head. "Come downstairs, everyone's waiting. Dinner is ready."
Rudh forced a faint smile.
"I'm coming."
---
Downstairs, the atmosphere was completely different.
Kabir was passionately explaining his new pre-workout powder to his father, who was half-listening behind a newspaper.
Rudh quietly took a seat.
In front of him—a plate of hot chole-bhature, onions, green chilies, and Mami's homemade mango chutney.
"Eat, bro! Delhi's bhature will body-slam Mumbai's vada pav," Kabir said, stuffing his mouth.
Rudh laughed.
He switched on his acting mode.
He smiled at the right moments.
Answered his uncle's political questions with logic.
Praised Mami's cooking.
But inside?
Inside, a silent alarm was ringing.
He was physically present…
but mentally still trapped in that ash-filled battlefield and violet light.
---
[Narrator: "See this? This is called a 'Normalcy Simulation.' Rudh's brain is running a firewall where everything looks fine on the outside… but inside, the CPU is at 100% load. The family thinks he's just tired. Meanwhile, the guy feels like his very existence is splitting into two."]
---
After dinner, Rudh said a polite goodnight and returned to his room.
No one suspected anything.
He locked the door and stood in the dark, staring at the balcony.
Tomorrow morning…
He had to go out.
He needed to check—
was this glitch only in his mind…
or was the city itself sending him the same signal?
---
The next morning, Rudh headed toward an old Delhi market.
Narrow lanes. Endless crowd. Noise everywhere. The smell of spices filling the air.
An infinite ocean of people.
Rudh walked through the crowd, but his mind was still decoding the visions.
War… Dust… Violet Pulse…
The noise around him faded into a dull hum.
Rickshaw horns. Shopkeepers shouting. People pushing—
everything turned into background static.
He was so lost in thought… he didn't even realize where he was going.
"If this is real… then where is its physical source?" he muttered, checking his phone.
The same steps counter app was open.
13,000 steps to the Anchor.
---
Then—
something changed.
A sudden chill.
Like someone placed ice in the middle of sunlight.
Rudh stopped.
He realized something strange—
The noise…
Delhi's constant, unavoidable noise…
was gone.
---
He froze.
Slowly turned his head.
And his heart skipped a beat.
---
A second ago, there were thousands of people.
Now—
there was nothing.
---
No crowd.
No rickshaws.
No shouting vendors.
Gone.
It was as if someone had switched life itself off.
Only old, dust-covered buildings remained.
And in the middle of the street—
Rudh stood alone.
---
No birds.
No wind.
No sound.
Just a deep, terrifying silence…
that shook his bones.
It felt like he had stepped into a dead dimension.
---
His breathing quickened.
He tried to shout—
but his voice got swallowed by the silence.
---
[Narrator: "Well then, folks—the game has changed. Until now, Rudh thought the glitch was inside him… but now reality itself has been deleted. The silence is so deep, you can hear your own heartbeat like an explosion."]
---
Rudh looked at his phone with trembling hands.
The app showed no numbers now.
Only a single question… written in that same ancient script:
---
"Are you just an Observer… or are you the Spark?"
---
[Narrator: "So tell me… will Rudh escape this silence? Or will it drag him toward that 'Destiny' from which no one ever returns?"]