Our Hearts Woven Together: Bond of Siblings

Prologue

The ache in Maan’s chest grew heavier as he stared out at the vast expanse of the city below him. London, with its endless gray skies and indifferent crowds, felt nothing like home. It never had. The towering buildings and ceaseless hum of life only deepened the void within him. His twin sister Tara’s absence was like a wound that refused to heal, no matter how far he ran or how much he tried to bury it in his poetry.

He closed his eyes, the memory of her laughter haunting him, the sound of her clapping still clear in his ears. They had been inseparable once—two halves of the same soul. No one understood him the way Tara did. She had been the one who believed in his dreams when the world around him seemed to shrink, suffocating under the weight of expectations. And now, without her, those dreams felt hollow.

"I don’t know how to do this without you, Tara," Maan murmured to himself, his voice barely more than a whisper. His hands clenched the railing as the thought of her flooded his mind. Her disappearance had broken something in him, left him adrift, as if the ground beneath his feet had crumbled away. "I can't keep pretending everything's fine... when you're gone."

The city lights flickered below, but Maan's world was dim. He had written hundreds of poems since she had vanished, words that tried to capture the depth of his loss, but none of them could bring her back. Nothing could. Every day felt like an endless struggle to find meaning in a life that no longer seemed worth living.

A cold wind blew through the air, stinging his skin, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore. He had tried so hard to move forward, to live in a world without Tara, but the loneliness was unbearable. Maan took a step closer to the edge of the cliff, his eyes glazed with unshed tears.

"Maybe... if I leave, I'll find you again," he said softly, as if speaking to her spirit. The thought of reunion, of being with Tara again, was the only thing that brought him a fleeting sense of peace. He could almost hear her voice, light and teasing, urging him not to be so dramatic. "I’ve always been the serious one," he thought with a bitter smile.

But the emptiness returned just as quickly. Without her, there was no more joy in his poetry, no spark in his words. His life had become an echo, and he didn’t know how much longer he could stand the silence.

Maanvendra Singh Barot,the name itself carried so much weight. The thoughtful,serious, cupcake lover and a solace seeker poet..Maan .was his identity now.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed in his pocket, breaking through the haze of despair. Maan hesitated, glancing at the screen. A message from an unknown number. He considered ignoring it, but something made him open it. The text was simple, almost cryptic: *"Tara needs you."*

Maan's heartbeat stopped. His mind raced. Was it a cruel joke? Or was it possible—could Tara still be out there, alive somewhere?.If yes,how is she?.