1: 11:47 PM
Delhi's nights are never completely silent.
Somewhere in the distance, the constant roar of traffic continues over a flyover. Lights remain on in apartment windows long after midnight. A cab driver waits for his final ride. Someone walks alone after a breakup. And inside some locked room, a decision is being made whose consequences will be paid by thousands of people for years to come.
But that night, something was different.
It was raining lightly.
The roads were wet.
And the time was—
11:47 PM.
Aarav Mishra was riding his old black bike home.
Twenty-seven years old.
Neither a wealthy businessman nor the son of a powerful family.
He had no criminal background.
He was just an ordinary young man.
During the day, he worked as a data analyst for a private logistics company. At night, he returned to his small rented apartment and thought about his future.
His salary was decent.
His dreams were big.
His savings were small.
And his life…
was ordinary.
Perhaps his greatest quality was that even when life pushed him down, he never gave up without trying at least one more time.
That night, however, he had no idea that his entire life was about to change.
His phone was mounted on the bike's handle.
Google Maps showed:
“You are 8 minutes away from your destination.”
Aarav smiled faintly.
“Just eight more minutes…”
His phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
He looked at the screen.
UNKNOWN CALLER
He rejected the call.
Two seconds later, it rang again.
He rejected it again.
The phone rang for the third time.
This time, he slowed the bike and muttered inside his helmet,
“Who's dying at midnight?”
He pulled over slightly and answered.
“Hello?”
For several seconds, there was no response.
Only breathing.
Fast breathing.
As if someone on the other end was running.
Aarav frowned.
“Hello? Who is this?”
Then a low voice came through.
“Aarav…”
He immediately straightened.
“Yes?”
“If you're hearing this call…”
The voice suddenly stopped.
Then—
“Understand this… they've found you.”
Aarav's faint smile disappeared.
“Who?”
There was silence on the other end.
Then the man said,
“What your father started… it's time to finish it.”
Aarav's hand loosened on the accelerator.
“My father?”
His father had been dead for almost nineteen years.
And Aarav had always been told only one thing about his death—
It was a road accident.
Aarav had been eight years old.
“Who are you?”
he asked.
The voice replied,
“Your mother lied to you.”
A sudden fear passed through Aarav.
“Don't talk about my mother—”
BANG!
A loud sound came through the phone.
The call ended.
Aarav immediately looked at the screen.
Call Ended.
At that exact moment, bright headlights appeared behind him.
A black SUV.
Moving fast.
Aarav looked into the rear-view mirror.
The SUV was almost right behind him.
He moved to the right.
The SUV moved right too.
He took the left.
The SUV followed.
His heartbeat quickened.
“What's going on…?”
The SUV suddenly accelerated.
Aarav understood.
They were following him.
He twisted the accelerator.
The bike shot forward.
The rain became heavier.
The road was almost empty.
The SUV's headlights remained behind him.
Aarav turned into a narrow lane.
The SUV followed.
“Shit!”
He swore under his breath.
He had no idea who they were.
He only knew one thing—
They wanted him.
Then he noticed a CCTV camera on the side of the road.
Its red indicator light was blinking.
Aarav looked at it.
A second later—
The camera went dead.
The red light disappeared.
His expression changed.
Then the CCTV camera at the next junction went off too.
Then another.
It was as if someone was shutting down the entire surveillance system along his route, one camera at a time.
Aarav pulled out his phone.
There was network coverage.
But the GPS suddenly showed:
“Location unavailable.”
He stared at the screen.
“How is that possible?”
At that exact moment, a truck appeared ahead.
Aarav slammed the brakes.
The bike skidded.
He crashed onto the wet road.
His helmet struck the ground.
Pain shot through his hand.
The SUV stopped behind him.
Two doors opened.
Two men stepped out.
They wore black clothes.
Their faces were partially covered.
One of them had a gun.
Aarav looked at them from the ground.
Fear spread through his body.
The first man spoke.
“Target confirmed.”
The second raised his gun.
Aarav grabbed a metal pipe lying beside the road and swung it with all the strength he had.
THUD!
The pipe struck the man's wrist.
The gun fell.
The other man kicked Aarav.
He fell again.
He tried to get up.
A punch hit his face.
His vision blurred.
But he got up again.
He fell.
He got up again.
The man grabbed him by the collar.
“Do you even know what you've gotten yourself into?”
Aarav looked at him through bloodied lips.
“I… don't know anything.”
The man smiled slightly.
“That's your biggest problem.”
Then—
Police sirens echoed in the distance.
Both attackers stepped back.
One of them looked at Aarav.
“Not tonight.”
They jumped into the SUV.
The vehicle disappeared into the darkness.
A police van arrived seconds later.
Aarav finally breathed in relief.
A police officer approached him.
“What happened?”
Aarav pointed toward the road.
“Two men attacked me.”
The officer looked at his bike, the road and the surrounding area.
Then his eyes fell on Aarav's phone.
“Give me your phone.”
Aarav handed it over.
The officer stared at the screen.
His expression changed.
“Who does this number belong to?”
“I don't know.”
“Who called you?”
“An unknown number.”
The officer stared at him for several seconds.
Then he picked up his radio.
“Control… suspect identified.”
Aarav froze.
“Suspect?”
The officer looked at him.
“Aarav Mishra, you're coming with us.”
“But I'm the victim!”
The officer's expression remained cold.
“We found your fingerprints at a murder scene.”
Aarav's face went pale.
“What?”
The officer continued,
“The man who spoke to you on the phone…”
He paused.
“That man is dead.”
Aarav couldn't speak.
The officer added,
“And he was murdered at exactly 11:47 PM.”
Aarav slowly looked at his phone.
The call was still in his call history.
11:47 PM — 03:16
His breathing stopped.
If that man had been murdered at the same time…
then—
How had he spoken to Aarav on the phone?
And an even bigger question—
How did that man know about Aarav's father?
Rain continued to fall.
For the first time that night, Aarav realized—
Everything he had believed to be true about his life…
might have been a lie.
And somewhere in the darkness, someone was watching him.
A CCTV monitor displayed Aarav's frozen image.
A man sitting in front of the monitor whispered,
“Finally…”
Another man asked,
“Does the target know?”
He smiled.
“No.”
He zoomed in on Aarav's face.
“He only knows that his past is still alive.”
After a moment of silence, the other man asked,
“The next phase?”
The answer came quietly.
“Already underway.”
The man looked at his watch.
11:59 PM.
He opened an encrypted file.
Only one name appeared on the screen—
AARAV MISHRA
Below it was an old photograph.
The photograph was almost twenty years old.
Three people stood in it.
A man.
A woman.
And a little boy.
The boy's face had been circled.
The man stared at the photograph.
“Aarav… we tried to keep you away from the truth twenty years ago.”
His smile disappeared.
“But your father made one mistake.”
He leaned closer to the screen.
“He hid the last secret.”
The screen went black.
At that exact moment, an encrypted message appeared—
“THE LAST SECRET HAS AWAKENED.”
---
2: THE FALSE MORNING
At 6:20 AM, Aarav opened his eyes.
But he wasn't in his apartment.
White walls.
A metal table.
A chair.
And a locked door.
His head was throbbing.
His hand was bandaged.
He tried to sit up.
The door opened.
A woman officer walked inside.
She looked around thirty.
Calm face.
Sharp eyes.
A file in her hand.
She pulled out the chair and sat across from him.
“Aarav Mishra.”
Aarav remained silent.
The woman opened the file.
“There are three questions we need answers to.”
Aarav looked exhausted.
“Three?”
“First—why were you at the location last night?”
“Second—how did the dead man know you?”
She paused.
“And third…”
She took a photograph from the file.
The moment Aarav saw it, his breathing stopped.
His father was in the photograph.
But he wasn't alone.
Standing beside him was a little girl.
She looked around ten years old.
Behind her was a strange symbol.
A circle…
with a black triangle inside it.
Aarav stared at the photograph.
“Who is she?”
The woman didn't answer.
Instead, she said,
“That is exactly what we want to know.”
Aarav looked at her.
“Who are you?”
For the first time, the woman smiled faintly.
“Not an inspector.”
“Then?”
She closed the file.
“You'll need me very soon.”
She stood and walked toward the door.
Before leaving, she turned back.
“And Aarav…”
“Yes?”
“If someone tells you that your father's death was an accident…”
She paused.
“Don't trust them.”
The door closed.
Aarav was alone.
He slowly closed his eyes.
For the first time, one question began echoing inside his mind with full force—
If his father's death wasn't an accident… who killed him?
And why?
He didn't know it yet.
But finding the answer would force him to tear apart every truth he had ever believed about his own life.
And the most painful part—
To reach that answer, he would have to trust the very girl he hadn't even met yet.
Her name was—
Meera Sen.
And Meera had a secret too.
A secret so dangerous that, compared to it, Aarav's father's death was only the beginning.
TO BE CONTINUED…