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Chapter : A Name That Echoes in the Dark
The moment the call ended, Rayyan stood there, phone trembling in his hand, the world around him collapsing in slow, suffocating silence.
Her voice still rang in his ears — sharp, shaking, final.
> "Don't look for me, Rayyan. Whatever we had... it ends now."
He blinked once. Twice. A breath caught in his throat like glass. The silence on the other end wasn't just the absence of sound — it was the sound of something dying. Something sacred.
"No…" he whispered, numb fingers tightening around his keys. "No, Dee. You don't get to vanish. Not like this."
He didn't stop to think. Didn't even bother locking the door behind him. He jumped into his car and sped through the streets like a storm was chasing him — or maybe like he was the storm himself, unraveling. The rain started just as he turned toward the hills, soft at first, then harsher, streaking across his windshield like fate was mocking him.
Her mansion loomed at the edge of the cliffside like a memory carved in stone. Grand. Silent. Lifeless.
He pushed through the gate and up the marble stairs, chest heaving, hope clawing inside him. "Dee!" he shouted as he entered.
But the mansion was empty.
Not just quiet — empty.
Rooms that once smelled like lavender and old books now smelled like cold air and absence. The chandeliers flickered like they were grieving. The couches were covered. The grand piano sat closed. And upstairs — her room — was gutted.
Her closet was bare. Her vanity empty. The photograph of them by the fireplace was gone from the mantle. No silk scarves hanging on the hooks. No worn boots by the door. Even the tiny silver earrings she used to leave carelessly on the dresser were gone.
Everything — gone.
The walls echoed with nothingness, and the silence screamed in his ears. Rayyan stumbled into the center of her bedroom, heart racing, lungs collapsing, and fell to his knees.
He felt it then — a weight crashing down on him, heavier than anything he'd known. Like the sky itself had caved in and was pressing against his chest. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't move.
His hands trembled as he reached for the drawer by her bed, yanking it open. A single item rolled to the edge — a boarding pass.
His eyes blurred as he read it. One-way. International. Today.
A strangled sound escaped his throat — not quite a sob, not quite a scream. Just pain. Sharp, drowning, endless pain.
> "She left me," he whispered. "She really left me."
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He became a ghost in motion — drifting through the city with his soul in ruins, gripping her photo on his phone like it was the only part of her left in the world.
"Please… have you seen her?" he asked a vendor on Garden Street, voice hoarse, soaked by the downpour. "She's—she's tall, long black hair… she always smiled like she was hiding a secret. Please…"
The man gave him a pitiful shake of the head. Rayyan nodded numbly and stumbled on.
He searched the café they used to visit every Thursday, barging in, desperate. "She always ordered caramel tea. She used to sit right there, by the window." His voice broke. "Tell me she came here…"
The barista looked confused. "I'm sorry, sir. She hasn't been here in a while."
He stood there, dripping rainwater on the tiled floor, like a statue carved from grief. Then turned away without a word.
He drove to the underground racing track, where her voice once echoed through cheers and roaring engines. Nothing.
The bookshop. The ballet theatre. Even the rooftop garden she once called her sanctuary.
Every place rejected him with silence.
Each stranger's "No, sorry" felt like a knife twisting deeper into a wound that had no end.
And still, he kept asking. He had to.
Because stopping meant accepting she was gone. And that... he couldn't survive.
---
By midnight, the rain had thickened into a storm, and his car rolled to a stop near the bridge — their bridge.
The one where she once whispered in his ear, "If I disappear, follow the stars. They'll always lead you to me."
But tonight... there were no stars. Only clouds. Only darkness. Only him.
He stepped out into the storm, his legs heavy, his heart barely beating. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the pavement, the rain soaking through his clothes like it was trying to drown him too.
And then—he shattered.
"DEEEEEEE!"
His scream tore through the air like thunder. It wasn't a cry for help. It was the cry of someone being ripped in half.
"You said you'd stay!" he shouted. "You said you weren't like the rest! Why—why would you leave like that?! What did I do?!"
He clawed at the wet pavement, sobbing. "You didn't even say goodbye. You left like I was just… nothing."
He screamed again. "DEEEEEE!"
And then he collapsed, fists bleeding, voice gone, chest heaving like his heart had forgotten how to beat without her.
---
"Rayyan?"
Margaret's voice cracked as she spotted him curled on the roadside. She had just passed by in a cab when she saw the figure collapsed under the streetlight. She ran to him, eyes wide, heart racing.
"Rayyan! What are you—my God, what happened?"
He didn't look up. Couldn't. His eyes stared blankly at the wet road.
"She's gone," he whispered.
Margaret crouched beside him. "What? Who?"
"Dee." His voice cracked. "She's gone, Maggie. She left. Vanished. Mansion's empty. Everything's gone. She left the country. No warning. No explanation. Just... a phone call."
Margaret placed a hand over her mouth, her eyes shining. "Oh, Ray…"
"I tried everything," he said, barely able to form the words. "I looked everywhere. I begged people. I shouted until my throat burned. She doesn't want to be found."
"But why would she—?"
"I don't know!" he yelled suddenly, then broke again. "I don't know why. I don't know if she's in danger or if she just wanted to disappear. All I know is she's gone. And my heart… my whole damn world… went with her."
Margaret gently wrapped her arms around him, rocking him like a child. "We'll find her, Rayyan. I swear we will."
"What if I was just a part of her lie?" he whispered. "What if loving me was never real?"
"No." Margaret shook her head. "Whatever reason she left, I know one thing — you mattered. And that's why it hurts this much."
He buried his face in her shoulder, the storm outside no match for the one inside his chest.
And as they sat there in the rain, brother and sister holding onto each other in the ruins of a love that once lit up his life, Rayyan could only whisper the one name that still echoed through the hollow of his heart.
> "Dee…"