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𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂 - 𝙈𝘼𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙀 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙉.

This chapter contains graphic violence, torture, and intense scenes involving a character receiving a brutal form of justice. Reader discretion is strongly advised. This content may be disturbing to some readers.

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Seven days.
One hundred and sixty-eight hours.
Over ten thousand minutes of silence.
And Rudra could feel every second crawling under his skin like insects.

He stood in his office-no, prison-suffocating under the weight of his own dread.

The lights were dim, curtains drawn shut as if shielding him from a pair of eyes he couldn't see but could feel.

Eyes that had once burned into his back years ago. Eyes that belonged to Him.

Rudra had stopped calling Priya after day four. The endless ringing had become unbearable.

The silence that followed each attempt had started to sound like a threat. On the fifth day, he sent men-three trusted ones-to wipe everything clean from her apartment.

Files, hard drives, phones, scrap paper-anything that could even whisper Rudra's name.

By the seventh day, the nightmares had started.

"𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗲?"

He mumbled now in the half-light, pacing barefoot on the cold marble, his shirt half-untucked, hair disheveled.

Sweat beaded along his hairline despite the AC. His phone lay on the couch-useless. No calls. No texts. Just Priya's last location from a week ago, blinking like a dying light on the map.

Rudra clenched his fists and slammed them into the wall.

"She wouldn't be this stupid. She wouldn't. Not unless..." His voice trailed off.

HE knew.
HE had to know.
That's why Priya vanished. That's why the air felt thicker. That's why even the silence had teeth now.

He staggered back, clutching the edge of the table. His breath came in sharp gasps. It wasn't just fear-it was terror. The kind that curdled in his stomach and bloomed like sickness in his chest.

"You said you'd vanish, Priya," he whispered, half-pleading, half-accusing. "You said you'd cover it. Just one clean job. But now you've gone and left me exposed."

A knock on the door jolted him. He almost leapt.

"Who is it?!" he barked, voice cracking.

Marley peeked in, his face drawn and pale.

Rudra exhaled, waving him in with trembling fingers.

"Sir... the cleaners handled her flat. No trace left behind," Marley said.

"Neighbors said they didn't saw her.No cameras near the exit. It's like... she vanished."

Rudra laughed, but it was dry and mad.

"Of course she vanished. Because that's what HE does, doesn't HE? Pulls people into shadows and makes them disappear-like fucking magic."

He looked at Marley, eyes bloodshot. "You think He's watching now? Right now? Maybe through one of these windows?"

Marley shifted uncomfortably.

"We can move you. Safer place. We can-"

"Nowhere's safe," Rudra hissed.

"Not when HE is in the picture. You don't understand, Marley. HE's not just a man-HE's a curse. HE doesn't kill with bullets. HE kills with time. With silence. With fear."