Morning spilled over the Sunayna mansion like a fragile sigh. Sunlight sifted through the tall, narrow windows, tracing the contours of the ornate walls, gilded frames, and polished floors. Yet Maya's room remained draped in shadow. The curtains, thick and velvet, hung like guards protecting secrets long buried. Even the light seemed reluctant to touch her, as if it feared the depth of the girl it illuminated.
Inside, the air was heavy. Heavy with memories she could not name, with fears she could not speak aloud, with the weight of a family she had not known in fourteen years, yet whose expectations pressed on her chest like iron bands.
Maya sat cross-legged on the polished wood, eyes closed, her breath slow, precise, unwavering. Her hands rested on her knees, pale and delicate, yet rigid with purpose. She was neither praying nor meditating. She was preparing. Preparing to face the world outside her shadowed room—a world that watched her, dissected her, measured her worth in silence and glances.
Downstairs, the mansion came alive with its usual morning rhythm. Silverware clinked against china, soft footsteps padded across marble, voices murmured in careful, rehearsed tones, each aware of the fragile presence of the girl who did not speak.
Mahim sat at the head of the dining table, a newspaper folded but ignored in front of him. His jaw was tight, his eyes like knives, cutting the room in halves, measuring, calculating. Beside him, Mahi, composed yet trembling, lifted her teacup but did not drink, as if touching it might shatter her fragile composure.
One by one, the brothers entered. Fahad first—brisk, impatient, every step measured, yet betraying his simmering frustration. Fahim followed, silent, analytical, eyes scanning the room and the girl who awaited them like a storm contained. Fahan entered with his usual inscrutable calm, face unreadable, presence measured. And Farhan, slow and deliberate, cane tapping softly, haunted eyes tracing the floor as though it had absorbed the memory of every step he had taken before.
They did not speak. They waited, all of them, for something they could not name.
The heavy door opened.
Maya entered.
Black clothing clinging to her frame, her hair braided tightly against her pale skin. She moved without haste, without hesitation, yet with an elegance that made the air still around her. She did not greet. She did not smile. She simply took her place at the far end of the long table, a presence that demanded attention without asking for it.
A plate was set before her: rice, lentils, and fried fish.
Her gaze lowered, flickering for the briefest instant—a shadow crossing a mirror. She pushed the plate gently away.
"I don't eat fish," she said, her voice soft, unwavering, like water cutting through stone.
Fahad raised an eyebrow, frustration tinged with curiosity. "Any reason?"
Her eyes lifted just enough to meet his, dark, unwavering, timeless. "They used to mix poison in the fish."
The room froze. Silence fell heavier than any spoken word.
Farhan coughed softly, startled by the weight of her recollection, the sudden gravity of memory she carried in those brief words. Mahim's spoon hovered in midair, his fingers stiff, his expression unreadable. "Who?" he asked quietly, a tremor of tension threading his voice.
But Maya said no more.
She picked up a piece of bread from a neighboring plate and ate with deliberate silence. She did not eat the fish, yet she did not make a scene. She simply existed, a quiet rebellion against the world that sought to define her.
Later, in the sprawling garden, the air was softer, lighter, freer. Sunlight fell across the hedges, petals glimmered, and the breeze carried the scent of damp earth and blooming flowers. Here, Maya wandered alone, untouched by the expectations and fear that crowded the mansion's walls.
The water of the old stone fountain trickled quietly, singing a soft, forgotten song of time. Maya knelt at the edge of the pond, staring at her reflection. The eyes that met hers were calm, unreadable, unbroken by the turmoil of memory or fear. She raised a trembling hand and touched the water. Ripples spread outward, distorting the reflection, and then the surface stilled again, perfect and silent.
"You always come here," a voice said behind her.
Farhan stepped lightly, hesitant, like a shadow fearful of startling the fragile calm she carried.
Maya did not turn. "Because water forgets," she said.
"Water forgets?" he asked softly, stepping closer but keeping his distance.
"When fire burns, the scars stay," she whispered. "But water… it remembers nothing. You can scream into it, and it will keep your secret."
Farhan said nothing. Her words hung in the air like smoke, curling into every corner of the garden, settling over the flowers, the fountain, the pond, and the boy who listened.
She rose, brushing the grass from her knees, and walked past him without a backward glance. Her steps were soft, precise, yet impossible to ignore, leaving an imprint of presence that lingered longer than her figure itself.
That night, long after the mansion had quieted and shadows stretched like silent sentinels across the corridors, Maya slipped from her room. Barefoot, carrying only her diary and a sharpened pencil, she moved silently through the garden, moonlight guiding her path.
She did not sit at the pond. She settled on the grass, the soft earth pressing cool against her palms. Opening her diary, she drew.
This time, the pencil did not sketch faces.
It drew —closed doors, locks without keys. It drew syringes, fragments of fear, and trembling shapes of memory. And finally, in bold, almost letters, a single word: "Arab."
A shadow shifted behind her.
She did not turn. She already knew.
Fahim stood quietly, arms crossed, watching. He did not move, did not speak for a long, suspended moment, observing the intensity of her solitude.
"You don't sleep much, do you?" he asked at last, his voice careful.
"I don't like dreams," she replied, her eyes still fixed on the diary, tracing invisible lines in the grass.
"Why?"
"Because I remember them too clearly when I wake up," she whispered, her voice carrying a weight he could not measure.
The next day, the mansion began to murmur. The servants spoke in hushed, tremulous tones. The maids whispered about strange drawings left on tables, on paper, on the edges of books. The guards noted the silent, measured steps of her bare feet as they passed through hallways. The cook muttered under her breath that Maya never blinked. The driver swore he saw her speaking to the sky as if the stars themselves were old friends.
The family watched, silently, cautiously, each moment of her movement cataloged, studied, and dissected. Every glance, every breath, every step was observed, though none dared confront her directly.
During breakfast, she touched nothing but bread and water. She did not ask for condiments or ask questions. She did not laugh at jokes, did not respond to scolds. She simply existed, radiating a quiet authority that made everyone around her simultaneously fearful and enthralled.
Fahad tried to force conversation again, leaning across the table. "You can't go on like this forever, Maya. You have to speak. You have to—"
She raised a hand slightly, not in anger, but as if cutting a knife through the words themselves. Silence fell again. The air seemed to thicken, compress, until even Fahad felt the impossible weight of her attention.
Maya's mother, Mahi, watched silently, her heart aching. She saw the girl who had once run through halls laughing, now transformed into an enigma that could not be touched. Mahi's fingers twitched as she reached for her daughter's hand, but Maya did not move. She did not flinch. She simply allowed herself to be seen in absolute stillness.
Later that day, Maya wandered through the mansion's corridors, her presence leaving a subtle impression on the walls themselves. Each shadow seemed to follow her, each painting in the hall tilting slightly as if curious about her passage. Servants and family alike watched from a distance, hesitant to break the fragile tension she created merely by existing.
In the gardens, she moved among the lilies and roses, her black clothing stark against the bloom of life around her. Her fingers trailed along the petals, careful, almost reverent, as if acknowledging their fragility mirrored her own. She spoke to nothing, and yet every sound seemed to acknowledge her presence—the rustling of leaves, the soft trill of birds, the whisper of the fountain's water.
Fahim approached again, cautious, careful not to disturb the fragile bubble around her. "You're always out here," he said softly.
"I like to watch the water," Maya replied, voice barely audible. "It never keeps memory of pain. It only flows."
"And the world?" he asked, testing her patience.
"The world remembers everything," she whispered. "And it judges."
Silence fell between them, heavy, weighted with shared understanding and unspoken questions. She did not look at him, yet he felt the force of her gaze, sharp, precise, unflinching.
Night fell, bringing with it shadows that stretched long and whispered across the grounds. Maya returned to her diary, her pencil carving shapes that were both memory and warning. Machines, cages, walls she had never escaped, doors that would not open. And always, a name. Arab.
Fahim watched silently, understanding, perhaps for the first time, that this girl—this presence—was both unyielding and fragile, brilliant and haunted. She did not need his approval. She did not ask for his concern. She simply existed, and that existence alone reshaped the world around her. 😐