Sketching her Shadows

Satya turned slowly, his heart still racing from the brief glimpse of her. But when he saw the person standing before him, his breath caught for an entirely different reason.

"Rohan?"

Rohan—his childhood friend. Someone he hadn't seen in nearly six years. They had grown up together but drifted apart after Rohan's family moved to another city. And now, here he was, standing under the dim streetlights, as if pulled back into Satya's life at the exact moment everything had started feeling unreal.

"Man, I can't believe it's really you!" Rohan grinned, pulling Satya into a quick hug. "What are the chances?"

Satya blinked, still processing. "Yeah… crazy timing."

Rohan chuckled, unaware of the storm raging inside Satya's mind. "I just moved back for work. Thought I'd explore the city a bit, and bam—ran into you. You still into sketching?"

At the mention of sketching, Satya's fingers instinctively clenched around his bag, where the book on reincarnation rested.

"Yeah," he said cautiously. "Still at it."

Rohan smirked. "I remember you used to draw the weirdest stuff. Always had a thing for mysterious faces, huh?"

Satya tensed. "What do you mean?"

"You don't remember?" Rohan raised an eyebrow. "Back in school, you used to doodle random people in your notebooks. Faces none of us knew. You even got scolded for drawing in class instead of taking notes." He laughed. "Man, some things never change."

Satya's stomach dropped. He barely remembered that. Or maybe he had never thought about it before. But now, after everything—the dreams, the sketches, her—it didn't feel like a coincidence.

He forced a casual tone. "You think I was just making them up?"

Rohan shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe you were seeing something the rest of us couldn't."

Satya's grip tightened on his bag.

This wasn't new.

He had been sketching her long before he even realized it.

Before he ever dreamed of her.

Before he even knew she existed.

A Clue in the Darkness

The weight of that thought sat heavy on his chest as he and Rohan walked through the streets, catching up. But Satya's mind wasn't in the conversation. It was trapped between past and present, searching for an answer in the shadows of his memories.

Finally, Rohan checked his watch and sighed. "I should get going. But hey, we should meet up soon. Just like old times."

Satya nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah… definitely."

As Rohan walked away, Satya pulled the book from his bag, flipping through the pages under a streetlight. His eyes landed on a passage:

"Some souls leave traces across time—unfinished memories that resurface in dreams, art, and déjà vu."

His breath came slow and unsteady.

He wasn't imagining this.

It had started long before he realized it.

And now, he needed to know the truth.

Because whoever she was…

She had always been a part of him.

And he was going to find her.