UnFaded Twilight

🌑Chapter 10

The world feels quieter these days. Priya still tries her best to keep me busy, to make me laugh, to drag me into her world of noise and work and people. But no matter where I go, no matter what I do, there is only one place my heart belongs to — this beach. The same beach where everything began, and where everything ended.

I sit on the cold sand, the wind whipping through my hair. The scent of the sea is strong tonight, salty and raw, filling my lungs and burning my eyes. I hug my knees, pressing my chin into them, trying to make myself smaller. The world feels too vast without him. Too empty.

The waves rush forward and retreat, like the heartbeat of the earth. They remind me of him — sometimes close enough to touch, sometimes slipping away before I can hold on. This beach has seen everything: our first awkward meeting, our laughter, our long walks with Priya teasing us, the quiet confessions when words were too heavy to speak, and finally… our last goodbye.

I close my eyes, and suddenly he’s here again. Dev. His voice, that low steady warmth, calling my name. His smile, the one that always lit up even the dullest day. I can almost see him walking towards me across the sand, his shirt sleeves rolled up, his eyes filled with that mischievous tenderness only he could carry. And for a moment — just for a heartbeat — I almost believe he’s real.

But the wind shifts, and all I hear is the crashing sea. He is gone. He is gone, and yet he is everywhere.

My tears spill freely. I had told myself I wouldn’t cry today, that I would sit here calmly and remember him with strength. But how can I? How can anyone be strong when half their soul has been torn away? I whisper his name to the sea, letting the waves carry it into the horizon, hoping somehow, somewhere, he hears me.

“Dev…”

The sun begins to sink lower, painting the sky in shades of crimson and gold. It looks almost like the heavens are bleeding, mourning with me. And as I watch, I realize the sunset is just like us. Beautiful, fleeting, inevitable. It comes every day with the promise of light, and yet it must always end in darkness.

Still, even in its death, the sun leaves behind its colors — just like Dev left behind his love. A love so deep, it still wraps itself around me, even in his absence.

Priya’s voice echoes in my mind — “Neha, life must go on.” Maybe she’s right. Maybe one day it will. But not today. Not when every grain of sand under my palm still remembers him. Not when every wave still carries the echo of his laughter. Not when this place still belongs to us.

The horizon swallows the last trace of the sun, bleeding colors into the restless sea. Just like Dev, it disappears beyond my reach, leaving behind only its glow — beautiful, but untouchable. The beach, once our beginning, now stands as my only companion, holding the echoes of his laughter, the whispers of our love, the silence of his absence. And me… I sit here with tears streaming down my face, crying for the life we could have had, crying for the man I still love, crying because even as the sun sets and the world moves on — my heart refuses.

"And here I'm now sitting
On this beach left with nothing.
Still my dying heart hopes...
That he'll back for me
One day..."

— Sulekha ❤

---END