Chapter One: The Girl in the Rain
The first time I saw her, she was standing under the old banyan tree at the edge of our school field.
It was late evening. The sky was bruised purple, and rain was falling softly—thin, silver threads drifting through the fading light. Everyone had already gone home. Football practice had ended early because of the weather, and I was running toward the gate when I noticed her.
She wasn't holding an umbrella.
She just stood there, perfectly still, her long black hair resting against her shoulders. She wore a simple white dress that moved gently in the wind, even though the air felt strangely heavy and still around her.
I don't know why I stopped.
Maybe it was the way she looked at me.
Not in a creepy way. Not even shy. Just… calm. As if she had been waiting.
"Hey," I called out, my voice echoing across the empty field. "You'll get sick standing there."
She tilted her head slightly.
"I don't get sick," she replied.
Her voice was soft, almost musical—but something about it made the tiny hairs on my arms stand up.
I walked closer.
The strange thing was… the rain didn't seem to touch her. Drops fell around her, but none landed on her dress. It remained perfectly dry.
"Are you new here?" I asked.
She smiled.
"Yes," she said. "You could say that."
There was something different about her eyes. They were dark—too dark. Not black. Just deep. Like looking into water at night.
"I'm Arif," I said, trying to sound normal. "Class ten."
"I know," she answered.
I laughed nervously. "Oh. Right. Small town."
She didn't laugh.
Instead, she looked toward the school building. The windows were dark now, empty.
"Do you believe in things you cannot see?" she asked suddenly.
I blinked. "Like… what?"
"Like memories that refuse to disappear."
Before I could answer, a flash of lightning tore across the sky. For a second, everything turned white.
And she was gone.
Just gone.
The rain continued to fall. The banyan tree swayed in the wind. But she wasn't there anymore.
I stood frozen, heart pounding.
Maybe she ran away. Maybe I imagined it.
But then I noticed something lying on the ground where she had been standing.
A small silver locket.
I picked it up.
It was cold. Not just cool from the rain—cold like ice.
Inside the locket was a tiny, faded photograph.
A girl.
Wearing the same white dress.
Standing in front of our school building.
But the photo looked old. Very old. The edges were torn and yellowed.
On the back, written in faint ink, were the words:
"I will wait for you."
I swallowed.
I had never seen her before.
Yet somehow, deep inside, I felt like I had known her for a very long time.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
Around midnight, I heard something.
A soft tapping at my window.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
My room is on the second floor.
No tree branches reach that high.
Slowly, I sat up.
The tapping stopped.
Then I heard her voice.
Soft. Close. Almost like a whisper inside my head.
"You found it."
My heart nearly stopped.
I didn't move.
"Who are you?" I whispered into the darkness.
Silence.
Then—
A faint reflection appeared in the window glass.
Not behind me.
Not outside.
But inside the glass itself.
Her face.
Smiling.
And her eyes…
They were no longer just dark.
They were glowing.
Very faintly.
Like distant stars.
And that was the moment I realized something terrifying—
She wasn't just a girl I met in the rain.
She had been waiting.
For me.
End of Chapter One
If you like this, I can continue with Chapter Two where Arif discovers what happened at the school ten years ag..