chapter 9 Where Did She Go?
724 Words
Where Did She Go?
Night slowly claimed the train.
Outside the windows, the rain continued to fall.
One drop after another, against the vast black curtain of darkness.
The train moved on.
The rails sang beneath it in the same unchanging rhythm.
Inside the coach, the lights gradually dimmed.
One by one, the passengers surrendered themselves to sleep.
But that night...
the rain seemed unwilling to stop,
as though it alone had something left to say.
There were barely ten hours left before Delhi.
Only that.
One night.
One morning.
And then—
the journey would be over.
Before sleep finally took him, he looked once towards her side.
She was sitting quietly beside the window.
That familiar silence resting upon her face.
He didn't ask anything.
She didn't say anything.
Between them, that night, remained countless words neither had spoken.
Then...
with the sound of rain filling the spaces between the coaches,
he too fell asleep.
Morning slowly entered the train.
The darkness of the night dissolved beyond the windows.
The sky began to wear its light once again.
He opened his eyes.
For a moment, he remained suspended in the blurred world between sleep and waking.
Then, instinctively, he looked towards the seat opposite him.
She wasn't there.
At first, he didn't think much of it.
Perhaps she had gone to the washroom.
He looked through the window.
A few minutes passed.
She didn't return.
He checked his phone.
Then looked towards the opposite seat again.
Empty.
Her bag was gone.
Her book was gone.
Her water bottle was gone.
Nothing remained.
His brows drew together slightly.
He stood up.
First, he walked towards the door of the coach.
He looked near the washroom.
She wasn't there.
He moved farther down the coach.
One seat at a time.
Near the windows.
Near the doors.
Along the passage leading towards the next coach.
Nowhere.
A memory from the previous night suddenly returned.
The thieves.
The knife.
The danger that had surrounded her.
The way she had withdrawn afterwards.
The faint trembling of her hands.
Without realising it, he began walking faster.
Something happened?
Is she safe?
An uneasiness slowly settled in his chest.
He returned to his seat.
That was when he noticed the TTE standing nearby.
“Sir...”
The TTE turned towards him.
“Yes?”
There was an urgency in his voice that hadn't been there before.
“The girl...”
He paused, searching for the right words.
“The girl in the white dress.”
The TTE listened.
“She was sitting near me.”
He glanced around once more.
“She’s missing.”
For a moment, there was silence.
“I've been looking for her.”
The TTE didn't seem particularly surprised.
Instead, he answered with an almost ordinary calmness.
“Sir... she stepped out.”
He went still.
“What?”
“Madam stepped out last night.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“Last night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where?”
The TTE looked at him for a moment.
“I'm not sure, sir.”
He said nothing.
Only one question remained in his mind.
Where did she go?
But another question, larger and more unsettling, began to trouble him.
Why?
She had been travelling to Delhi.
There were only ten hours left.
Had she really needed to get off somewhere?
And if she had...
why had she left without saying a single word to him?
Only yesterday...
she had been sitting across from him.
In the rain.
Beside a book.
With a smile.
And then—
a wound.
A silence.
A night.
And after that...
nothing.
He looked at the empty seat.
Once again.
For a fleeting moment, it almost seemed as though she were still sitting there.
Looking out through the window with that quiet smile.
Her rain-dampened hair falling around her face.
Those green eyes.
Without realising it, he whispered—
“Why did you leave...?”
There was no answer.
The train continued forward at the same relentless pace.
Outside, morning had fully awakened.
Delhi was drawing closer.
But for the first time in their journey—
one seat was empty.
She was gone.
Where?
Why?
With whom?
He knew nothing.
There was only one thing he knew for certain—
she had disappeared in the space of a single night.
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