Ishq hua (Duet 1)

Chapter 36: Eclipse

Aira:

The first thing I felt was the cold.
It seeped into my skin, into my bones, like the walls themselves were made of ice. My eyelids fluttered open, heavy, reluctant, as if they knew what waited for me in the dark.

Darkness.

My chest tightened, panic clawing its way up my throat. I tried to move, but the harsh clink of metal stopped me. My right wrist yanked, and the skin beneath burned against iron. A chain. Shackled.

A sharp breath left me, shuddering. This wasn't Arsh's doing. His men never touched me, never bound me. He might be a monster, but never with me.

This... this was different.

My hand instinctively shot to my neck, desperate. But my fingers met only bare skin.

"No..." The whisper tore out of me, raw and cracked. My pendant was gone. The tiny piece of him I always carried - warm, familiar and safe, ripped away. My stomach hollowed, my body shaking as though the absence alone could kill me.

How is he supposed to reach me without the pendant?

The air around me was heavy, suffocating, carrying with it the stench of rust and damp stone. I could hear water dripping from somewhere but couldn't point exactly where.

And then I felt it.

Eyes. Watching me.

I turned sharply, my heart lurching into my throat. She was there, crouched in the corner, half-hidden in shadow. A girl. Blonde hair, filthy and matted, falling over her face. Her thin knees pulled against her chest, her bare feet raw and cut. She didn't even flinch from my presence. Didn't look away. Just... stared.

Her gaze was hollow, sharp. Like she had already seen everything I hadn't yet dared to imagine.

I swallowed hard, my throat sandpaper. The longer her eyes held mine, the more my skin crawled. I tore my gaze away, staring instead at the cracked floor.

Her voice broke the silence. Raspy, low. "Are you new?"

The question lodged itself inside me, absurd and terrifying all at once. New. As if this place was routine, as if people came here often. As if I wasn't the first.

My lips parted, dry and trembling. "W-what?"

"New," she repeated, her tone flat, almost detached. "First day here?"

Confusion spiraled into me, tangling with fear. I shook my head, my voice a fragile whisper. "Where... where are we?"

There was a pause. A long, heavy pause, like she was deciding whether to break me with the truth or let me cling to the unknown.

Finally, she lifted her face fully. The dim light from a slit in the wall caught her eyes. Hollow. Empty. Blue dulled into grey, like life had been leeched out of her long ago.

"Where are we?" I repeated, desperate, my voice cracking.

Her lips curved, but it wasn't a smile. It was something colder, simply dead. "Welcome," she whispered, her voice like shattered glass. "To hell."

The word hit me like a blow, knocking the air out of my lungs. My heart thundered so violently I thought it might tear its way out of my chest.

"What?" I whispered, shaking my head, my chains rattling. "What do you mean?"

Her gaze didn't soften even a bit. She just kept staring at me like I was the next in a long line of souls doomed to rot here.

I wrapped my free arm around myself, rocking slightly, desperate for warmth, for Arsh's voice, for anything that told me this wasn't real. My pendant. My pendant was gone.