"You won't be able to leave me, Rohan."
Aanya's hand was stretched out in front of me.
Her skin wasn't cold…
It was wet.
Like soil soaked in rain.
I stepped back.
"No… you can't be real."
She didn't even blink.
She only smiled.
"You felt real to me too when I was lying on the road," she said softly.
"Between blood. With broken legs."
My stomach twisted.
"Stop it," I covered my ears.
"This is a hallucination."
"I called you," Aanya said.
"You chose to watch the match."
Silence.
Only the wind and the smell of burnt wood.
"I thought you would come," her voice trembled.
"But you didn't."
She lifted her dupatta.
A dark mark on her neck.
Finger-shaped bruises, like someone had pressed hard.
"I screamed for help," she said.
"But people only watched. No one stopped the truck driver."
I fell to my knees.
"I didn't know…"
"I thought… you were just being dramatic."
Aanya walked toward me.
With every step, the soil moved slightly.
As if the ground itself was breathing.
"You will forget me," she said.
"That's why I came back."
"Back?" I looked at her.
"You're alive?"
She shook her head.
"I am where those who die incomplete go."
"So… a ghost?"
My voice sounded like a joke.
"No," she said.
"I am a memory. And memories never die."
She pointed at my phone.
The screen was still on.
The chat was open.
Aanya: "Do you know where people go after they die?"
"This is nonsense," I said.
"I'll take you home. To a doctor."
"Home?"
Her laugh cracked.
"My home is here."
She sat beside the funeral pyre.
Where her body had burned.
"This is where I was forgotten," she said.
"That's why I'm alive."
"What does being forgotten mean?" I asked.
"People cry and move on," Aanya said.
"You cried today. Tomorrow you'll go to office. Then life becomes normal."
I remembered…
I had to go to office in the morning.
"You want me to move on?" she looked at me.
"To leave you?"
"No!" I said immediately.
"I won't forget you."
Something lit up in her eyes.
"Then why did you come here?"
"I was telling you not to."
"Because you were messaging me," I said.
"You were alone."
"Being alone is my punishment," she said.
"But if you remember me… I can stay here longer."
"What does that mean?"
"I exist as long as you can see me," she said.
"When you choose someone else… I will become soil."
My throat closed.
"So you're binding me?"
"Blackmailing me?"
She raised her hand.
"Only you can see me, Rohan. No one else."
"What do you mean?"
"You are the only one who can touch me," she said.
"Others think I'm just air."
She held my finger.
This time, I could feel her.
Cold.
Soft.
But hard inside… like frozen soil.
"Keep me with you," she said.
"I will stay inside your phone. In messages. In calls."
"You can't come into real life?"
"I can," she said softly.
"But only in places where I am remembered."
"The cremation ground… the accident spot…"
"Yes," she said.
"That is my world."
The phone vibrated.
Aanya: "Will you keep me with you?"
I stayed silent for a while.
"Let me think."
Her face darkened slightly.
"If you refuse, I'll stay here," she said.
"Alone. Under the ground."
I looked around.
Night.
Darkness.
Burnt pyre.
A girl only I could see.
"You were my girlfriend," I said.
"You are my responsibility."
Tears filled her eyes.
"Then don't forget me," she said.
"That's all I want."
I started going back home.
I sat on my bike.
Aanya sat behind me.
I looked in the mirror.
She wasn't visible.
But I could feel her weight.
"Are you scared?" she asked.
"Yes," I said honestly.
"But I can't leave you."
The phone vibrated again.
Aanya: "That's why you're alive."
"What do you mean?"
"When you forget me… I will remember you," she said.
"And what is remembered… is never alone."
When I reached home, I locked the door.
As I entered the room, the light flickered.
"Aanya?"
"Are you here?"
Her display picture blinked on the phone.
Aanya: "I am always with you."
I sat on the bed.
"I won't be able to sleep," I said.
"Should I sing you a lullaby?" she said with a light laugh.
"Don't scare me."
"I will protect you," she said.
"But you must listen to me."
"What kind of rule?"
"You won't reply to any other girl's messages."
"You won't love anyone except me."
"This is getting possessive," I said.
"I am dead," she replied calmly.
"But my feelings are not."
The phone showed another message.
Aanya: "Tomorrow you will go to the accident spot."
"Why?"
"That's where I was fully formed," she said.
"That's where I'll know… how long I can stay with you."
I went silent.
Outside the window, the wind grew stronger.
The curtains moved on their own.
"Aanya… what if I refuse?"
She typed on the screen.
Then sent only one line.
Aanya: "Then I will stop appearing to you."
My hand trembled.
And then I understood—
She wasn't trying to scare me.
She wanted to be remembered
before she disappeared.
Slowly, I said:
"I will go tomorrow."
The phone screen dimmed.
The last message appeared.
Aanya:
"Good boy, Rohan."
"Tomorrow you will see my death again."
And the light went off.
The room was dark.
Only the phone screen glowed.
And on it was written:
Aanya is online.