Sharda’s Ledger - I
1145 Words
I. The Steps Outside the Door
Sharda stood frozen, halfway between the sofa and the door.
The footsteps had stopped. Silence expanded like a lung filling.
The walls tightened.
Aanya shrank into herself, trembling so violently the blanket rustled.
Zoya held her phone with shaking fingers.
“Kabir’s not picking up,” she whispered.
Sharda raised a hand. It was a command.
Quiet.
She listened.
Hospitals had taught her how to hear fear;
The unevenness of breath,
The scrape of shoes on tile and the way violence announces itself just before it happens.
But the landing outside the house was now utterly still.
No breath, shoes or movement.
Sharda stepped closer to the door.
Her pulse was steady and mind was clear.
Trauma training made her calm in emergencies.
But this calm was different.
This calm was way more personal.
Zoya hissed, “Sharda, stop.......what if he........”
But Sharda didn’t stop.
She reached the peephole.
Pressed her eye to it.
Saw...........
Nothing.
Not a man, not even a shadow.
Empty landing.
Aanya let out a small choked gasp from behind.
“He was there. He was there.”
Sharda didn’t lie.
She never lied.
But she said, “There’s no one now.”
Aanya folded into herself.
Zoya muttered, “Maybe he ran.”
Sharda’s jaw clenched.
Yes. Maybe he ran.
Maybe he never existed.
Maybe he existed too much.
She stepped back from the door.
“Lock it,” she said in a whisper.
Zoya rushed to turn the bolt.
Sharda turned to face her friends.
Aanya was curled like a wounded child.
Zoya looked like she wanted to punch the entire world.
Sharda stood perfectly still.
Except for her hands.
She hadn’t noticed how badly they were shaking.
II. The Surgeon Who Never Forgot
Sharda walked to the kitchen and squeezed her hands under cold water until the trembling stopped.
The running tap masked the hum of fear from the living room.
She leaned on the counter, breathing evenly.
A memory rose......uninvited, sharp.
Aman
her cousin
On the ground outside the hospital
Blood soaking the concrete
His fingers slipping from her grip.
Her own voice, seventeen years old and breaking:
“Do something! Please..........please, do something!”
The guard’s voice, bored:
“Deposit first.”
The doctor’s voice, detached:
“Too late.”
Her father’s voice, stern:
“Stop crying. You’re being dramatic.”
Her mother’s voice, tight:
“Sharda, we must be strong.”
Sharda, alone in the bathroom later that night, her mouth pressed so hard against her own wrist to stifle the scream that her teeth left marks.
That was the day she began her ledger.
Not a real one..........deeply, internal one.
A list of people she could not save.
A list of people she had failed.
.................. list she returned to every night, as compulsively as prayer.
Aman was the first name.
The first wound.
The first ghost.
But now..........
She felt the ledger rearrange itself.
Aanya’s name moved to the top.
III. The Question That Terrified Her
Sharda returned to the living room.
Zoya looked up.
“What do we do now?”
Aanya rocked slightly, whispering under her breath, “He found me. He found me.”
Sharda knelt in front of her.
“Aanya,” she said gently, “look at me.”
Aanya did........slowly, tearfully.
Sharda’s voice was soft but precise.
“Aanya… has he ever followed you before?”
Aanya hesitated.
This hesitation made Sharda’s skin go cold.
“Yes,” Aanya whispered.
“When I moved out at seventeen.
He followed me for months.”
Zoya inhaled sharply.
“Did he ever try to..................did he come near you again?”
Aanya shook her head.
“No. But he watched me.
He waited outside college.
He called from unknown numbers.
He left messages on the door.
He said he would come back when I least expected.
He said family never leaves.”
Sharda’s stomach twisted.
Zoya’s eyes filled with rage.
“Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you...................”
“I thought he forgot me,” Aanya whispered.
“I thought if I stayed quiet, he would stop remembering I exist.”
Sharda reached for her hand carefully.
Aanya didn’t pull away this time.
Sharda said, barely breathing:
“Aanya… what if he never stopped remembering?”
Aanya’s breath broke.
Zoya began trembling.
The room suddenly felt too small, too fragile, too mortal.
IV. Kabir Arrives
A loud knock broke the air.
It was fully Urgent.
Aanya screamed.
Zoya jumped to her feet. “WHO IS IT?”
A voice called from outside:
“It’s Kabir! Please open.........I came as fast as I could..........”
Aanya’s sob turned into a breathless exhalation of relief.
Zoya flung the door open.
Kabir rushed in, scanning the room, eyes widening at the sight of Aanya’s pale, shaking form.
“Oh god,” he whispered. “What happened?”
Sharda spoke first.
“There were footsteps outside.”
Kabir’s face hardened.
“Where?”
“Right at the door,” Zoya said. “Slow. Deliberate. Like someone listening.”
Kabir went silent.
Then........
“Can I check the landing?”
“No!” Aanya cried, panicked.
Sharda touched her shoulder.
“It’s okay. Kabir is just looking. He won’t open the main door.”
Aanya shook violently but nodded.
Kabir stepped out onto the landing, leaving the inner grille closed behind him.
He returned two minutes later.
No one.
No signs of disturbance.
But he was frowning.
“What?” Sharda asked.
Kabir held something up.
A cigarette butt.
Fresh.
Still warm.
Aanya stared at it.
Her blood ran cold.
Kabir said quietly:
“Someone was standing right here. Recently. And for a while.”
Zoya cursed under her breath.
Sharda’s jaw clenched.
Aanya whispered the words that broke everyone:
“He found me.”
Kabir walked closer.
He knelt carefully in front of her,
with a calm, steady, unwavering voice, he said:
“Aanya. He might have followed you.
Or he might have learned where you live.
Or he might just be lurking.”
Aanya sobbed.
Kabir continued:
“But he is not coming into this house.”
Sharda stepped beside him wordlessly.
Neither spoke it aloud, but an alliance formed.........
Fierce and absolute.
Zoya took Aanya’s hand.
Kabir took the other. Sharda placed her hand on her shoulder.
Three witnesses.
Three people who would not let her fight alone.
Aanya’s voice shook.
“What if he comes back?”
Sharda whispered the truth:
“Then he will face all of us.”
Kabir whispered the promise:
“He will never touch you again.”
Zoya whispered the vow:
“This time, someone will stop him.”
Aanya closed her eyes.
The tears fell silently.
But they fell into their hands holding hers. Hands that were not going to let go.
Not tonight or ever.
- Writer
