Evening was falling. Hues of orange and violet were dissolving into the sky, as if an artist had sprinkled water across their canvas. Gazing out of his bedroom window, Aarav felt as though even those colors were staring at him. Everything stared at him.
An unsettling feeling had taken root in his chest ever since the football match. It wasn't the anxiety of winning or losing. It was the anxiety born from that one look—the cold hatred frozen in Rohan's eyes. It was a promise, an unspoken threat.
He opened his physics textbook, but the letters danced before his eyes. His mind kept returning to that single moment on the field—when he had outmaneuvered Rohan. He felt no pride in it. Only regret. Regret that he couldn't feign ignorance, that he couldn't just disappear into the crowd no matter how hard he tried. His talent, his looks... they had all become a curse.
'I wish I were just... ordinary,' he thought. It was a wish he made to himself every single day.
Just then, the phone lying on his bed vibrated. A message from an unknown number glowed on the screen. He ignored it. Probably a wrong number.
But the phone vibrated again. The same number. With a strange sense of foreboding, Aarav picked it up.
The message read:
"Coach wants to meet you under the banyan tree near the pond. Wants to talk about the tournament selection. Come quick."
Aarav's brows furrowed. Coach? At this hour? And at such an odd place? The coach always met students in his office or on the grounds. This was strange.
One part of his mind screamed, 'Don't go, Aarav. It's a trap.' He knew it was a trap. His heartbeat quickened slightly. But then, another part of his mind offered a tired, rebellious thought.
'For how long? How long will I keep running from them, hiding from them? If not today, then tomorrow, I will have to face this. I should go and see what it is they really want.'
Perhaps it was the loneliness inside him that pushed him toward this decision. He wanted to be free from this daily suffocation. He took a deep breath, the kind one takes before plunging into a deep river. He picked up his jacket and, without telling his mother, slipped quietly out the back door.
The banyan tree stood at the edge of town, near an old, neglected pond. Even during the day, few people came here. And now, as the sun was setting, the place felt even more desolate and eerie. The air buzzed with the sound of crickets, and the banyan's hanging roots cast strange, distorted shadows on the ground, like a demon spreading its fingers.
As Aarav drew closer to the tree, his steps slowed. The sound of his feet on the damp grass was sharp in his ears. The air was cool, carrying the scent of the pond's still water.
There was no coach.
For a moment, Aarav thought of turning back. But just then, a few shadows emerged from the darkness of the tree. Four of them.
Rohan stood in front, a triumphant smirk on his face. With him were the same three friends, their eyes holding the same hatred from the field.
"Look who's here, Mr. Perfect," Rohan sneered, his voice laced with venom. "I thought you'd be too scared to show up."
Aarav remained calm. His heart was pounding, but he let no trace of fear show on his face. "Where's the coach?" he asked directly.
Rohan laughed, and the others joined in. "Coach? You idiot, you really thought the coach would call you here? You're not that special, understand?"
"So what do you people want?" Aarav's voice was steady.
"Us? We just want to show you your place," Rohan said, stepping forward. "You think you're better than all of us? A pretty face and a few books don't make you a superstar."
The four of them slowly began to circle Aarav. They wore the predatory smiles of hunters closing in on their prey.
"Look, I don't want any trouble," Aarav said calmly, not moving from his spot.
"But we do," said Sameer, one of Rohan's friends, as he stepped forward and gave Aarav a hard shove.
Aarav stumbled but didn't fall. He steadied himself. The anger inside him was beginning to boil, but he kept it in check. He pushed Sameer back, just enough to make him take two steps back.
That was all they needed.
"He raised his hand!" one of the boys yelled.
And then the assault began. This wasn't a movie fight. It was a frantic, clumsy scuffle. Someone grabbed his jacket, another kicked his leg from behind. Aarav was more agile than them. He was dodging their punches, breaking free from their holds, but there were four of them, and he was alone.
Amidst the hail of blows, Aarav looked into Rohan's eyes. Along with the hatred, there was now a flicker of fear. He was afraid that Aarav, alone, was overpowering all four of them. Their plan was failing.
And fear makes people do the ugliest things.
Sameer, the one Aarav had pushed first, saw this and panicked. He thought if Aarav got away, they would be the laughingstock of the school tomorrow. A storm of adrenaline and fear raged in his mind. Without thinking, he charged at Aarav, screaming like an animal.
He rammed his shoulder into Aarav's chest with all his might.
It wasn't a push. It was a collision.
Aarav didn't even have time to breathe. The impact was so forceful that his feet left the ground. He was thrown backward, airborne for a moment...
He stumbled, his heel slipping on the rain-slicked grass. The pond pulled him in with a cold, green hand.
Splash!
For a moment, everything went silent. Rohan and his friends stood frozen, holding their breath. This was not what they had planned.
The water was ice-cold. Aarav's clothes dragged him down like iron chains. It was dark. He tried to thrash his way to the surface, but his body had stopped responding. A fire was burning in his lungs.
He was drowning.
Darkness was closing in on his vision. He gave up. 'So... this is how it ends,' was his last thought.
And then, in that darkness, he saw a light.
From the depths of the murky water, a silver fish swam towards him. It was no ordinary fish. The scales on its skin shimmered like fragments of the moon. It looked at Aarav with its large, dark eyes, as if it recognized him.
Aarav was stunned. For a moment, his fear vanished.
The fish circled him once. And as it completed its circle, something miraculous happened.
The water around Aarav... was no longer water. It began to transform into light, as if thousands of diamonds had been dissolved into it. A low, melodic hum began, like a distant heartbeat. Aarav felt a pull, not downwards... but from all directions at once.
Beneath him, in the depths of the pond, a vortex of light began to open, like a luminous maze. It spun like a galaxy, with a calm, hopeful sky at its center.
The pressure changed. The cold water suddenly felt like a warm ocean. The faint moonlight from above disappeared, replaced by a bright, unknown light source from below.
Aarav looked at the silver fish one last time. It was swimming at the edge of the vortex, as if bidding him farewell.
And then, the vortex consumed him completely.