Him OR Her

10. The Watcher

Jeet

The rain pounded relentlessly against the window, a steady rhythm that echoed the turmoil in my mind. Riya's room was dark, the only light coming from the occasional flash of lightning that illuminated her pale face. She sat on the edge of her bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, eyes wide and unblinking.

I wanted to reach out, to pull her close and tell her everything would be okay, but I couldn't. Not when I wasn't even sure I believed it myself. The sense of being watched, of someone lurking just out of sight, had grown stronger, more oppressive.

I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being hunted.

Riya's voice broke the silence, soft and trembling. "Jeet, what if we're not imagining it? What if... what if someone really is watching us?"

I didn't have an answer. I didn't want to think about the possibility that we were being stalked by something–or someone–we couldn't see. But the evidence was mounting, and the fear in Riya's eyes mirrored my own.

"I don't know," I finally said, my voice rough. "But whatever it is, we'll face it together."

Riya looked up at me, her expression a mixture of gratitude and fear. "But what if it's something... something we can't handle?"

I clenched my fists, trying to push down the growing sense of dread. "We'll handle it. We have to."

I needed to be strong for her, needed to protect her from whatever was out there. But as the night dragged on, the storm outside showing no signs of letting up, I began to wonder if I was in over my head. We were playing a dangerous game, one that we might not be able to win.

But I couldn't back down. Not now.

Riya

I could see the worry etched on Jeet's face, the tension in his jaw as he tried to keep his composure. It should have scared me, knowing that he was just as afraid as I was, but instead, it brought me some comfort. We were in this together, whatever "this" was.

But even as I tried to convince myself that we could handle whatever was coming, I couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had settled in the pit of my stomach. The air in the room felt heavy, suffocating, like something was pressing down on us, watching our every move.

I couldn't stop thinking about the shadows I'd seen out of the corner of my eye, the whispers I thought I'd heard when I was alone. They felt real, too real to be dismissed as paranoia or stress. And if they were real, then that meant... someone was out there, watching, waiting.

The thought made my skin crawl.

Jeet had settled into the chair by my desk, his eyes scanning the room as if he expected something–or someone–to appear at any moment. The tension between us was palpable, a mix of fear and something darker, something neither of us wanted to name.

The storm outside grew fiercer, the wind howling like a wild animal as the rain lashed against the windows. The room seemed to grow colder, the shadows lengthening and deepening as the minutes ticked by. I couldn't take it anymore–the silence, the waiting, the uncertainty.

I stood up, pacing the small space of my room, my mind racing. "We can't just sit here," I said, my voice trembling. "We need to do something, figure out who's doing this to us."

Jeet nodded slowly, but I could see the doubt in his eyes. "But how? We don't even know where to start."

He was right, of course. We were grasping at straws, trying to make sense of something that defied explanation. But I couldn't just sit back and do nothing. I needed answers, needed to know what was happening to us.

"Maybe we should talk to someone," I suggested, though I wasn't sure who I had in mind. The campus was full of people, but I didn't trust any of them. "Maybe... maybe we should go to the police."

Jeet shook his head, standing up and moving toward me. "We can't do that. What would we even tell them? That we think we're being watched by some... invisible stalker? They'd think we were crazy."

He was right, again. But that only left us with one option: we were on our own.

I wanted to scream, to cry, to do something to release the fear and frustration that had been building inside me. But instead, I just nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "So what do we do?"

Jeet was silent for a long moment, his eyes locked on mine. Then he reached out, his hand gripping mine, strong and steady. "We find out who's behind this. We figure out what they want. And we end it."

His words sent a shiver down my spine, but they also ignited a spark of determination. We were in this together, and no matter how dark things got, we'd face it head–on. Because we had to.

Because there was no other choice.

Jeet

I didn't let go of Riya's hand, even after the words had left my mouth. I needed that connection, needed to feel her warmth, her presence, to remind myself that we were still here, still real.

But in the back of my mind, the fear remained. The fear that maybe this wasn't something we could fight, that maybe we were already too deep, too lost.

But I couldn't let that stop me. I had to protect Riya, had to find a way out of this nightmare, whatever it took.

"We should start by retracing our steps," I said, forcing myself to think logically, to focus on the practical. "Try to figure out when this all started. Maybe we missed something, some clue."

Riya nodded, her hand still gripping mine. "Okay. But... what if we don't find anything?"

"Then we keep looking," I said, my voice firm. "We don't stop until we find the truth."

The storm outside seemed to agree, a flash of lightning illuminating the room for a split second, followed by a deafening crack of thunder. It was almost as if the night itself was challenging us, daring us to keep going, to face whatever horrors awaited us.

But as I looked into Riya's eyes, I knew one thing for sure.

I wasn't going to let anything happen to her. Not while I was still breathing.

We were in this together, and no matter what came next, we would face it.

Together.