The winds outside the monastery howled like wolves that had forgotten how to be animals.
Inside, Rashi lay curled on the stone floor of the sanctum, her hands trembling. Sweat clung to her temples, and her lips were cracked from constant prayers.
This was her third trial within a week.
Each time she lit a candle, something darker clawed at her spirit—whispers growing clearer, shadows dancing longer, and the pull of some invisible force trying to drag her out of the sacred threshold. Neil had stopped her from collapsing each time. But even he was beginning to look… concerned.
Her dreams had become twisted—snakes in water, Raghav’s voice calling out from behind church walls, and most disturbingly, a crib filled with black feathers and no child.
---
The Backstory: The Whispers That Broke The Strongest
That night, after her failed prayer session, Neil helped her sit upright, placing a hand over her pulse to steady it.
“You’re getting weaker, not from lack of strength… but because something is feeding on you now.”
Rashi looked up, eyes bloodshot. “Then stop it… or tell me how to.”
Neil didn’t answer. Not directly.
Instead, he led her into the oldest chamber of the monastery—one sealed by ash circles and laced with salt and crushed tulsi. At the center was a candle, but not an ordinary one. It burned with a violet-blue flame, trapped in a glass orb, whispering constantly in a tongue no human was born knowing.
> “This is the place where the Whisper first appeared,” Neil said, voice low. “I was young. Arrogant. I thought I could make a deal with darkness and walk away unscathed.”
He looked down at his hand—burn scars covered the palm.
> “I had a friend. Aman Desai. Strong. Brave. He came here to fight what I could not. The devil doesn’t always speak with claws or curses, Rashi. Sometimes… it offers hope.”
Rashi stared at the flame, the whispers now echoing her name.
Neil turned to her with sudden intensity. “Tonight… you will face it too.”
---
The Trial Begins
The ritual began under moonlight. Rashi, barefoot, stood within a salt circle. Candles flickered around her, casting long shadows that didn't move with her body.
Neil chanted softly, his words weaving a protective veil around her spirit. She felt her consciousness drift—then snap.
The room was gone.
She was somewhere else.
---
The Temptation
It was Raghav.
Standing in a sunlit meadow, smiling. Alive. Happy. Wearing the kurta he wore when he first kissed her on the forehead.
“Rashi,” he whispered, reaching out. “Come home. Leave all this madness.”
She stepped forward, heart shattering at the tenderness in his eyes.
Then… she noticed something.
The sun didn't shine on him.
His shadow bent the wrong way.
She stopped.
He spoke again—his voice now layered. Familiar, but hollow underneath.
> “Don’t let our child suffer through this darkness, Rashi. You can protect it. Just step outside the circle. Let go of the fight.”
Her heart froze.
Child?
The world shimmered. Raghav’s figure began to decay—his smile melting, his eyes turning pitch black, his body hollow.
> “You didn’t know, did you? You carry him. And me. And we both suffer in you now. Let it end…”
Suddenly, she was falling—black feathers choking her, her screams drowned by cries of a child she hadn’t yet met.
---
The Revelation
She jolted awake in Neil’s arms.
Sweat soaked through her clothes, and she was gasping like she had drowned.
But Neil wasn’t looking at her. He was looking through her.
His hand hovered inches from her stomach, not touching—but sensing.
His face turned pale.
> “No…”
“What?” she asked, coughing. “What did you see?”
He didn’t answer right away. He walked toward the altar, lighting a protective flame. He whispered a few verses before returning to her side and kneeling down.
> “Rashi… you’re not just carrying hope anymore.”
She blinked, confused.
> “You’re carrying Raghav’s child.”
The room fell silent, even the flame dimmed slightly, as if paying respect to a divine truth just spoken.
Rashi stared at him, stunned. “No. That’s not— I… I thought it was the stress, the vomiting, the dizzy spells—”
Neil nodded solemnly. “You thought it was the trials. But this? This changes everything.”
He stood and paced.
> “The darkness knows. That’s why it tried the Whisper tonight. It wants you broken, doubting, desperate enough to bargain. And now that you’re with child—Raghav’s heir—it will come harder, deeper, louder.”
Rashi held her stomach, disbelief warring with awe and terror.
> A part of him… inside me… even now?
Tears rolled down her cheek, not from fear—but a storm of emotions too tangled to name.
Neil placed a hand on her shoulder.
> “This child is light incarnate. But you must protect it now more than ever. The Devil’s Whisper will come again… and next time, it won’t wear Raghav’s face. It will wear yours.”
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