THE FATE (story addition)

She was handling it so well that her pillow started asking her,“Have you become that strong that you don’t even need me anymore?”He was a boy who never treated anyone right, and she was a girl who was never loved by her own people. Because it was written in their fate, they met. They met and suffered together. They faced everything. Both of them quietly talked about the world—how cruel it was towards them and their love. She thought that when we love someone, it should be sensible in the eyes of the world, and he thought that if we love someone, the thinking of the world doesn’t matter. Their thoughts were totally different from each other, but after feeling all this, they stayed.Everything was going well—that usually happens in a relationship—but God had other plans for them. They had a bond which was not meant for this generation. They fought, they argued, they misunderstood, and still they stayed. He was rude to others and had a harsh personality, but for her, he was a fictional, soft-spoken man who never raised his voice, even in anger. She was a girl who had lots of past traumas which were not healed yet, but after him, she realised the value of herself. The panic attacks converted into butterflies. As soon as they came together, all things started going well.One day, when she was sitting at the balcony reading a romantic novel and remembering him in her mind, she looked at the full moon. Suddenly, her phone rang. She picked up the call, and the person said, “He is no more.” She asked, “Who?” The person took his name, and her heart stopped beating. Her hands were shivering. She was paralysed for a second. She heard the background sounds coming from the phone—the sound of cars and an ambulance. One more bell rang, but this time it was the doorbell. She woke up and realised it was just a dream.“Heh,” she said softly.She opened the door, saw him, and hugged him tightly. His eyes were filled with tears. He grabbed her waist and slowly started kissing her lips. They smoothed into each other. After that, she asked, “What happened? Why are you crying?” He said nothing and asked her, “Treat me. I spent one day with you.” She said affectionately, “Yes,” teasing him. After that, they started making breakfast. She cut the strawberries for him and fed him. They were staring at each other and started kissing again. They cuddled, and after some time, she had a thought of telling him the dream she had yesterday night. She was just going to tell him when he put his finger on her lips and said, “I know. I will never leave you. Even after my death, I will come as a reflection and will spend time with you. But I can’t change the plans of God. I promised you that I will love you till my last breath, and I have fulfilled my promise. Now it’s your turn. Promise me that after me, you will never feel alone and never stop living your life.”She was totally confused, and with a little smile, she said, “Yes, I will fulfil it. But why are you saying all these things now?” she asked. He said nothing, gave her a forehead kiss, and said, “Goodbye, my love.” She was silent, and he left her house. She was just sitting on the bed in silence, thinking about him all night. She fell asleep, and when the phone rang, she woke up and picked the call. The person on the call said, “He is no more.” She suddenly got a sharp chest pain and called him, but someone else picked his phone and said, “He is no more.” He died a day before yesterday night in a car accident.Suddenly, she remembered all the talks and the dream she had that night. She realised that the person she spent time with yesterday was actually his soul and not him. Her heart broke into pieces. She started crying loudly. She went there to see him. She found out that he is now in the grave (qabr). She went there and said, “You were my everything—the reason I healed, the reason I live for myself. And now you left me? Why?” she asked with tears in her eyes.“You fulfilled your promise, and now it’s my turn,” she said. “As you said, I will never stop living after you, but now without you, I will remain alive as a corpse (zinda laash). Without you, my life will become hell again. How can I survive without you?” With a tear in her eye and a smile on her face, she meekly said, “You may die for the world, but for me, you will always remain alive in my heart. Wherever you are now—in heaven—take care of yourself.”The day she lost him, she lost the ability to love someone else. With his thoughts, she started writing poetry on him and lived forever with his thoughts only .... His name was spoken in the past tense now, reduced to files, statements, and silence. The chair where he should have remained empty, untouched, as if even the room understood that some absences could never be filled. The judge’s voice was steady while delivering the final words, but they carried no victory. Fate had brought them together for a reason, but it had never promised permanence.She chose herself nowTHE END— Shreya ✨His name was spoken in the past tense now, reduced to files, statements, and silence. The chair where he should have been remained empty, untouched, as if even the room understood that some absences could never be filled. The judge’s voice was steady while delivering the final words, but they carried no victory. Justice had arrived too late for apologies and too early for peace. She listened quietly. . The girl’s story moved forward—with herself.Fate had brought them together for a reason, but it had never promised permanence. Some people enter our lives to teach us limits, not forever. And some endings exist only to remind us that survival itself is an act of courage. As she turned off the light and lay down, she felt no emptiness—only resolve. The boy’s chapter had closed in silence. The girl’s story moved forward—with herself. She, on the other hand, was a girl who had never truly been loved by her own people. She had grown up surrounded by voices, yet always felt alone. Love, for her, had always come with conditions—be this, act like that, don’t feel too much, don’t speak too loudly, don’t exist too honestly. Over time, she learned to shrink herself so others could feel comfortable. They were two incomplete sentences, unfinished stories, walking through life without knowing they were missing the same punctuation. And because some meetings are written long before they happen, they met. Not in a dramatic way. Not with fireworks or destiny screaming their names. They met quietly—like two tired souls recognizing familiar pain in each other’s eyes. There was no instant promise of forever, only a silent understanding that said, You look like someone who has survived too much. They talked. At first, it was casual. Words about nothing important. But soon, conversations grew deeper, heavier, more honest. They spoke about the world—how cruel it could be, how unfair, how merciless toward people who loved too deeply or felt too much. They spoke about loneliness like it was a shared language. She believed that love should make sense to the world. That it should be accepted, approved, understood. She had lived too long seeking validation, too afraid of judgment. He believed something else entirely. “If you love someone,” he said once, his voice calm but firm, “the world’s opinion doesn’t matter.” But they stayed. Everything started going well—almost too well. And that’s usually when life reminds you not to get too comfortable. God, it seemed, had other plans. When they were together, things felt lighter. Safer. Like the world had finally loosened its grip on them. she REMEMBERED that moment...... One evening, she sat alone on her balcony. The sky was painted in shades of blue and silver. She held a romantic novel in her hands, though she wasn’t really reading. Her mind was filled with thoughts of him—his voice, his expressions, the way he looked at her like she was something precious. She looked up at the full moon, glowing quietly, as if listening. Suddenly, her phone rang. The sound cut through the silence like a blade. She picked it up. A voice on the other end said words that made time stop. “He is no more.” Her heart skipped. Her mind refused to process it. “Who?” she asked, her voice barely audible. The name followed. And in that moment, everything collapsed. Her heart felt like it stopped beating. Her hands began to shake violently. The phone almost slipped from her grip. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t move. In the background of the call, she heard chaos—cars, distant shouting, the sharp wail of an ambulance. Another sound followed. A bell rang. But this time, it wasn’t her phone. It was the doorbell. She jolted awake, gasping for air, drenched in sweat. It took her a moment to realize she was in her bed. “It was just a dream,” she whispered to herself. Her heart was racing, but she forced a weak smile. “Heh…” She walked to the door and opened it. And there he was. Alive. Standing right in front of her. Before her mind could catch up, her body moved on instinct. She hugged him tightly, as if afraid he might disappear. His arms wrapped around her, holding her just as firmly. BUT THE REALITY IN THIS STORY IS There was no anger left in her—only a calm heaviness. Death had ended his chances of making things right, and strangely, it had also ended her waiting. The boy who never did it right would never do it again. Not wrong. Not right. Not at all.Fate had brought them together for a reason, but it had never promised permanence. Some people enter our lives to teach us limits, not forever. And some endings exist only to remind us that survival itself is an act of courage.