I turned my phone screen on again.
Light filled the coach.
There was no white cloth on the seat across from me. The ring was gone too.
I looked at my palm. The ring wasn't there.
I looked under the seat. Nothing.
I looked toward the window. The word written on the glass had vanished too.
Everything was normal.
But Haseena... She never appeared again.
To be continued...
Next part: The Turmoil of a Twenty-Year-Old Promise.
I sat on that same seat for a while, unable to believe what had happened. My eyes remained fixed on the empty seat across from me.
Just moments ago, there had been a white cloth lying there, and just moments ago, that silver ring had been on my finger.
And now... There was nothing.
I looked at my watch.
2:18.
I was startled.
The watch had been stuck at 2:17 for so long. I checked the time on my phone. It showed the same thing. It was 2:18.
I let out a relieved breath. Maybe it had all been a hallucination. Maybe I was exhausted. Maybe the woman in white had never existed at all.
But then...
The train suddenly began to slow, and the sound of the wheels changed.
Clack... clack... clack...
I looked outside through the window.
The dense fog was still there.
But this time, something was visible through it.
A station.
An old-looking station.
The yellow lights along the platform trembled in the fog.
I narrowed my eyes and looked toward the sign.
My heart suddenly began pounding.
The sign read—
Hisar.
I shot to my feet.
“Hisar again?”
The words slipped out of my mouth on their own.
The train pulled into the platform and stopped.
The doors opened. Some passengers got off. Some got on.
Everything was completely normal.
But then I noticed an old man standing near the door. He was staring intently at me. The old man was looking straight into my eyes.
I looked away.
A few seconds later, I glanced back at him.
He was gone.
I looked around.
There was no sign of the old man.
Then a voice came from behind me—
“Are you still looking for her?”
I froze.
That voice...
I slowly turned around.
There was no one there. But a small piece of paper lay on my seat. I picked it up. The paper was old, with edges that had been slightly burned. There was only one date written on it—
Twenty years ago.
And beneath it...
A sentence.
I trembled the moment I read it.
“You weren't alone that night.”
The paper nearly slipped from my hand.
I immediately looked outside the window. The platform was empty.
Then, far away in the fog, I saw a white silhouette.
She was standing there.
Still.
Utterly silent.
I rubbed my eyes and looked again.
The silhouette slowly turned toward me.
And then...
She raised her hand.
As if she were calling me over.
Only one word escaped my lips—
“Haseena, the beautiful woman in white...”
Suddenly, the train whistle shrieked.
The doors began to close.
I clenched the paper in my fist and ran toward the door.
But the train started moving.
The white silhouette fell farther and farther behind.
And then the paper in my hand turned over by itself.
On the back, only three words were written—“You left me.”
I stood there, rooted to the spot.
Because for the first time, I no longer merely suspected it...
I was beginning to believe that the events of that night twenty years ago concealed a secret far greater than anything in my memory.
But what was the truth?
And who was Haseena?
If she had truly been separated from me twenty years ago, how was she appearing before me on this train today? These questions sent my mind into a strange, agonizing turmoil.
I opened my fist and looked at the paper again.
“You left me.”
Those three words stirred up a storm inside me.
I closed my eyes.
Suddenly, a hazy image emerged before me in the darkness.
An old train...
Dense fog...
And a girl walking beside me.
I tried to see her face, but just like every time before, my memory stopped at that exact point again.
All I heard was her voice—
“Sumit... wait for me.”
I opened my eyes with a start.
My breathing had quickened.
That voice belonged to Haseena.
But why was that night twenty years ago so hazy in my memories? And the biggest question...
Had I really left Haseena that night?
Or had someone... deliberately erased that night from my memory?
To be continued...