Unseen Chains: In the Shadow of Control

Chapter Seventeen: Shadows in the Feed

Dev's POV

Dev had been on campus since 7:15 a.m. It wasn't his shift yet, but he'd gotten used to logging in early — fewer people around, easier to tune out the world. The surveillance room was tucked behind the admin block like it didn't exist, just the way the management preferred it.

He rubbed his temples, blinking at the four main monitors that flickered with split feeds from all over the college: corridors, labs, the mess, rooftops, some even hidden near staff-only zones. It was illegal, yes. But Dev had long ago stopped pretending the system was clean.

They paid him. They needed him.

And somewhere between camera angles and timestamps, he kept coming back to her.

Aarya.

That sketchbook scene was branded in his memory — not because of the mud or the rain. Because of the quiet, electrifying pull he'd felt when he looked into her eyes, even for that split second. He hadn't spoken since. But he'd noticed her.

And watched.

Too often.

He hated himself for it sometimes. Not because he stared — but because he didn't know why.

His phone buzzed with a reminder:
Mock test — 8 PM.
He was slipping. Deadlines for GATE prep, GRE vocab, even the coaching center's scholarship test — all waiting. His mother called last night, again. Dad's sugar levels were down. Rent was up. Dev had no room to spiral.

But here he was, staring at the feed from the main block again.

Aarya was sitting by the library window, sketching. Even from a blurry angle, he knew it was her.

"Focus, idiot," he muttered to himself, switching tabs to review logs.

That's when he noticed it.

Something was missing.

Two days ago. 4:15 PM to 4:45 PM. Admin block hallway. No footage.

He checked again. The logs had been manually scrubbed. And not by him.

His jaw clenched. That feed was locked behind admin-level access. Only the Head of Infrastructure, or one of the directors, could edit logs from that zone.

Or someone who'd bribed their way in.

He leaned back, cold sweat tracing his spine.

Whatever they were hiding... they didn't want witnesses.

And maybe, just maybe, he wasn't the only one watching Aarya.