"Bade Baba, if we die today, I'm blaming you. Personally."
Tiku whispered this while gripping Arav's kurta like a lizard clings to a tube light.
Arav didn't respond.
He stood in the middle of an empty classroom at Night Ridge College, the smell of chalk still hanging in the air. Ceiling fans creaked overhead, their slow rotation slicing through the silence. One of the fluorescent lights flickered, as if it couldn't decide whether to stay alive.
A girl had screamed from this room ten minutes ago.
Now there was nothing.
No footsteps.
No voices.
No signs of struggle.
Too quiet.
Arav's eyes narrowed.
Smoke.
Thin black threads curled up from the corners of the room, creeping along the walls like secrets that refused to stay buried.
Tiku squinted. "I swear something moved. I saw… something. Monsters have backsides, right?"
"Quiet," Arav said.
The air shifted.
A dull vibration rippled through his chest, deep and unsettling—like someone had struck a tuning fork inside his spine.
His breath slowed instinctively.
Something was here.
Not human.
Not alive.
A pressure built at the base of his body, heavy and grounding, dragging his awareness downward.
Gate Response Detected
Mooldhara—Unstable
External Shadow Presence confirmed
Arav clenched his jaw.
Of course it was unstable.
The walls trembled faintly.
Tiku panicked and raised a lemon in front of him like it was a sacred artifact.
"I command you to back off. By the power of… citrus."
The lemon slipped from his hand.
It rolled across the floor.
Then it rolled back.
On its own.
Tiku inhaled sharply. "Okay. Nope. That's not normal. Why is it coming back?"
He jumped behind Arav so fast he nearly knocked him forward.
The lemon stopped at Arav's foot.
The lights went out.
Cold brushed against his ear—not wind, not breath, but something thinner. Something that didn't belong in a place with sunlight.
A whisper slid through the darkness.
"Found you."
Before Arav could react, the classroom door slammed open.
A flashlight beam cut through the dark.
"DON'T MOVE."
The voice was sharp. Controlled.
"Whoever you are, step away from the shadow."
Arav blinked as the light steadied.
Ira Gupta stood in the doorway, breath uneven, camera hanging from her shoulder like a second instinct. Her hand trembled slightly around the flashlight, but her eyes were focused—alert, unflinching.
Tiku whispered, "Didi has arrived. Either we're saved… or we die with company."
Ira stepped inside, scanning the room.
Then her gaze locked onto Arav.
"You," she said. "You were at the metro incident last week. And now you're here?"
She raised the flashlight. "I'm not leaving until I get answers."
Arav opened his mouth—
The shadow in the corner opened its eyes first.
Two pale orbs flared into existence.
No face.
No body.
Just hunger stitched into darkness.
Tiku screamed. Loud. Unfiltered.
"Bade Baba—FULL SIZE SHADOW!"
The thing lunged.
Ira froze.
Her flashlight flickered.
Her camera rattled.
Her breath caught as something cold brushed against her senses.
Arav moved.
His hand came up instinctively.
The sound that left his mouth wasn't a chant or a prayer.
It was sharp. Precise. Violent.
"धृ."
White fire snapped from his palm and slammed into the shadow.
The impact cracked like metal tearing apart.
The entity screeched as it smashed into the wall, its form rippling violently.
Ira stumbled back. "What—what was that?"
"Stay behind me," Arav said.
The shadow twisted, trying to reform. Limbs stretched and collapsed, struggling to hold shape.
A minor entity.
Born from accumulated fear—exam pressure, anxiety, unspoken dread.
A small thing with a very bad attitude.
Tiku yelled, "Use the big fire! The one where your eyebrows glow!"
"That's not a technique," Arav muttered.
"It looks like one!"
The shadow roared.
Heat surged up Arav's spine. Heavy. Grounded. Dangerous.
Gate Load increasing
Grounding Response Detected
Warning: Stability Compromised
He stamped his foot.
The floor cracked.
A shockwave rippled outward, tearing through the room. The shadow screamed as its form shattered, breaking apart into thin ribbons of smoke that burned away into nothing.
Silence crashed down.
Only the fan blades continued scraping overhead.
Ira stared at Arav as if the rules of the world had shifted in front of her.
Tiku wiped his face.
"I knew it. Bade Baba is some kind of limited-edition superhero."
Arav shot him a warning look.
Ira stepped forward slowly.
"You're hiding something," she said quietly.
"And I'm done pretending I didn't see that."
Arav met her gaze.
"You shouldn't chase things like this," he said. "They look back."
She lifted her chin. "Let them."
Something stirred inside Arav's chest at that.
A faint resonance—unfamiliar, sharp—brushed against his senses.
Observation Thread Initiated
Subject : Ira Gupta
Status : Unclassified
Tiku glanced between them and sighed.
"Okay, but serious question—can someone pick up my lemon? It sacrificed itself."
For the first time since the shadow appeared, the tension broke.
Outside, the corridor hummed with distant footsteps.
Inside Arav's chest, something watched.
And somewhere beyond the walls of the college, something else did too.