5 REMINISCENCE

Later the day when Ananya's funeral was held. Sumit greeted her parents, who had been completely lost in the grief of losing their daughter. He decided to take care of her belongings after the funeral. When he reached her room, he found her bag, makeup kits, clothes, and most importantly, her diary.

Outside, police and the CBI team were busy finding clues about this disrupt death of Ananya, but they got nothing. In the end, they declared it an 'Assassination' and closed the case.

Sumit started to read it, only to find Ananya was the one who was in love with Sumit ever since they met. She described everything so vividly in her diary, drops of tear fell from his eyes for every word he read. He decided to keep the diary with him forever...as a mark of her LOVE!!!!!!

'Your image flutters in and out my mind, Making me smile, Making me remember. I want you to stay forever, With me. But, Like a butterfly, You always drift away, leaving me alone to look upon the sky.'

*FLASHBACK*

"Sumit get up, its 8:00 clock already don't you wanna play, and it's a Sunday." Every Sunday morning Sumit was greeted by an energetic Ananya who was ready to spend the entire day with him, playing running, littering everywhere. Whenever Sumit got into trouble with his parents, she would always come for her aid. All this till they were 15. Then when they reached 15, they started going to parties, movies, night outs, camping, which bought Sumit close to falling in love with her. Both entered a new phase in their friendship, something beyond.

They have always been close to each other, let it be school, tuition, playground, or any other thing. Their parents thought they are made for each other by the heavens. Ananya's mother always said that she was very gloomy and dull when she is alone at home, but the moment she sees Sumit, it's as if someone recharged her and now she can play all day long. Ananya always wrote in her drawing book that she will marry Sumit when she will grow up. Her mother ignored this as she thought what does a child understand, but little did she knew that she was serious about all this.

A few years later, when they were 13, he found out about Ananya's step-sister. Ananya didn't disclose her name, but she did introduce her to Sumit. In order to hide, she didn't mingle much with them, but she used to show up occasionally. Being an inquisitive and energetic child, Sumit forgot about her totally.

Because of being overly smart and intelligent, with a very high IQ, they were admitted to college at the age of 16 itself.

When they turned 17, both went to Disneyland with their families, but Sumit and Ananya were always together, holding hands they explored the Disneyland all by themselves, even shared 1 ice-cream. And so many more, until she died a painful death, before Sumit's 18th birthday.

Both of them are die-hard MARVEL fans. Both of them saw all 22 movies together since they were little, the latest being AVENGERS: ENDGAME. Sumit remembers up to this day how Ananya co-splayed Scarlet Johnson during a school fancy dress competition, in which he got second being co-splaying Harry Potter. "I have to admit she looked sexy in that costume", he always thought.

*PRESENT*

Sumit has fallen asleep for hours after returning from Ananya's home. In his sleep, he found Ananya's spirit, which was chained and held captive by a malevolent demon, Sumit ran for her, but couldn't save her as he was thrown back every time he tried. The demon had started to growl even more loudly than before.

He ran for one last attempt to go and save Ananya from that monster, to which this time, Sumit somehow managed to jump over the monster, breaking her shackles with sheer force, and then escaping from the place. Before vanishing in the white light, Ananya, all tired and breathless, just said one word, 'Steven' before everything vanished. Sumit woke up with a thud, only to find Sanjana making omelettes and noodles for him in breakfast.

The first thing he did after waking was to search for Ananya's diary. He was glad that the diary was right beside him. He still remembered the promise he made to Ananya while they were in the hospital, the thing that they saw, now he is the only one who knows about it. He cannot help but hide it from his sister or parents since it would create a lot of confusion and useless questions. Days were growing really weird, and he even begins to question his own sanity, as all this that he facing everything neither makes sense nor has a meaning.

"Oh, good you woke up, go wash. By the way, father called and after all this, he wants to talk to you, and a new transfer student is moving in the campus tomorrow, he is a foreigner, from Canada, I hear. I will be staying with you until all this is over, got it. I can't leave you alone like this!"

"Steven???" Sumit asked in a thrilling voice. "How do you know, you didn't even attend the conference?" Sumit gasped "It has to be her. It's far from over."

Steven was the signal Sumit got before he woke up. "Ananya knew she was going to die, she knew it all along, she even knew when she will die, that's why she confessed her feelings to be the last day, not just that, Steven, he has to be the guy Gopala warned me about. Either a nemesis or an ally."

Sanjana was shocked to hear the theory, but even she was observing Ananya's weird behaviour since the last few days. "I agree with you, some way or the other, she knew this was going to happen, but how?"

Sumit, taking a huge pain within him as he was about to break his promise to Ananya told Sanjana all that he saw in the hospital in the X-Ray machine, hearing which Sanjana was shocked.

"Who is this inside my heart? The one bathing in blue light, The one controlling my mind? Who have I become really?"