Beneath the Blue

The sea stretched wide and endless below the cliffs, glistening like molten sapphire under the golden hue of the setting sun. But none of that beauty mattered as Ahana plunged down from the edge, her scream swallowed by the roar of the festival crowd above.

The world twisted.

Air fled her lungs, replaced by cold, shocking silence. The impact was sudden, brutal—but oddly, once beneath the surface, everything turned eerily calm. The water around her turned still, glowing with a surreal bluish-white light that danced like candle flames. Bubbles escaped her lips as her body sank slowly, helplessly, the folds of her clothes drifting around her like a forgotten ghost.

Her limbs no longer fought. Her eyes slowly closed.

And then—it happened.

A flash.

A blood-red moon hung in a sky of smoke.

A palace on fire.

She stood barefoot, wrapped in a wet red dress clinging to her skin, chains at her wrists. The cries of war echoed all around. Someone was calling her name—not Ahana, but something older, laced with longing.

Her heart thundered in her chest.

A hand reached out from the flames.

A voice—a man's voice—deep, broken, familiar:

"Don't leave me again..."

Gunfire cracked the sky—a bullet ripping through a shoulder, sending a body staggering backwards.

A truck screeched, metal screaming against stone.

The girl in red turned toward the sound—

Falling—

Chains rattling—

Blood splashing across white stone.

Ahana's eyes flew open underwater, pupils dilating, chest burning. But it wasn't just water anymore. It was memory. A memory that didn't belong to this life—but to something far before. Something unfinished.

And in that same moment, miles away—

Aksh jerked, body writhing in the back of a van as the sedatives kicked in. Blood still pulsed from his shoulder, soaking his shirt. His vision blurred, his muscles heavy, but in that dreamlike state between waking and unconscious, the same image flashed in his mind like a lightning strike.

The girl in red.

Falling.

Chains.

Gunshot ringing.

Truck crashing.

Blood on white stone.

His own scream caught in his throat as he heard himself—not as Aksh, but someone else, someone lost in time—yelling her name through smoke and fire. He saw a sword in his hand. A throne. Betrayal. A war that ended with a blade in his heart.

Then silence.

As both bodies gave in—Ahana beneath the water, Aksh in the van—their souls trembled on the edge of recognition. As if the past was knocking on the walls of the present. As if fate had finally found its moment.

And somewhere, in that space between drowning and dreaming, a whisper curled through the darkness.

"You belonged to me long before this life... and I will find you again."

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

The stars trembled above as if holding a secret.

Somewhere, an ancient vow awakened, older than lifetimes.

A shadow watched from the edge of both dream and reality, smiling.

Because the game had only just begun... and neither of them remembered the rules.