The river had never frightened him before.
It had always been there, flowing quietly beyond the edge of the city, carrying fallen leaves, forgotten wishes, and the reflections of people who never stopped long enough to look at themselves.
Tonight, it was different.
The rain had not stopped for hours. Dark clouds swallowed the evening sky, and the river had grown wild, crashing against its banks as though it had a mind of its own.
Neel stood there in silence.
His backpack hung heavily from one shoulder. His clothes clung to him, soaked from the walk home. Behind him, the city buzzed with life, honking cars, distant conversations, bright lights reflected in puddles.
None of it felt like it belonged to him.
He wondered, not for the first time, what it would feel like to be truly missed.
The thought made him laugh under his breath.
People would notice eventually.
Maybe after dinner.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe never.
A sudden gust of wind swept across the riverbank.
The current roared louder.
For a brief moment, the world fell strangely still.
Neel frowned.
The rain stopped.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
Silence settled over everything.
Then came the sound.
Not thunder.
Not water.
A voice.
Soft.
Ancient.
Impossible.
"Come."
Neel turned sharply.
No one was there.
His heartbeat quickened.
The river shimmered.
The water, dark only a second ago, glowed faintly beneath the moonlight breaking through the clouds.
One step.
Then another.
His shoes sank into the wet earth.
He didn't know why he kept walking.
Only that something, someone, was calling him.
The river surged.
The ground beneath his feet crumbled.
And in the space between one heartbeat and the next...
The world disappeared.
YOU ARE READING
The Chief's Stranger
General FictionNeel Sharma has always been invisible. The forgotten middle child. The quiet student. The boy whose ideas were laughed at before anyone bothered to hear them. After an ordinary day ends in a tragedy beside a swollen river, Neel awakens beneath an un...
