Unseen Chains: In the Shadow of Control

Chapter Two: Frame by Frame

Dev's POV

She didn't belong here. I knew it the second her suitcase hit the gravel and she looked up like this place had personally offended her.

I had no business watching her. But when you're tucked in a dimly lit room in the admin block where walls hum with ancient servers and fifteen camera feeds flicker before your eyes, boredom makes you curious. Or nosy. Or both.

Most students just drift past the lens, all maroon and white, robotic and blur-faced. But this one—2B Wing, Corridor C—walked like she knew she was being watched but refused to shrink. That was rare.

I leaned in.

Thick, messy hair brushing her cheeks. A bob cut half-grown out, rebellious like her gait. She tugged at her dupatta like it was made of thorns. The rule sheet crumpled in her hand. Her face wasn't classically pretty—round heart-shaped face, small button nose, lips that weren't too big but somehow just right—but something about her made it impossible to look away.

She was maybe 5'4, a bit shorter than average but stood like she filled more space than she did. There was something electric in the way she moved—contained fire beneath schoolgirl fabric.

She reached Room 2B, paused, and looked right into the camera. Not at it. Into it. I pulled back instinctively.

"Chill, Dev," I muttered to myself. "She can't see you."

The office was quiet except for the buzzing monitor and the occasional slurp from my cooling tea. My job wasn't to spy. I was just supposed to flag anomalies. Break-ins. Missing persons. Unauthorized loitering. But I was also a curious bastard with too many secrets.

That girl? She felt like an anomaly. Not the dangerous kind. The fascinating kind.

I should've looked away. Changed the feed. But something in her silence held me longer than I intended. And when she looked around that empty room and let out a slow breath—like she was trying not to collapse—I felt something tighten in my chest.

She didn't know me.

But I knew her name now.

Aarya Sharma.

And I had a feeling she was going to ruin my peace.