The world didn't retaliate immediately.
It waited.
Not angrily.Not impatiently.
Just the quiet stare of something massive that had been ignored for the first time in its life…and was deciding what to do about it.
I felt it in the air — that strange politeness the world used when it didn't know whether to punish or adapt.
Wind brushed against me, curved, and moved on.Trees aligned their shadows to face us.Distant traffic hummed at the same frequency as my heartbeat.
The world wasn't bowing anymore.
It was recalculating.
The girl didn't speak for a long time.She just held onto my jacket sleeve like someone clinging to the railing on a ship during a silent storm.
Finally she whispered:
"Ishaan… is something coming for me?"
"It's not coming," I said. "It's already here."
Her breath caught, but she didn't let go.
She'd stopped trembling — not because she wasn't scared, but because there was no strength left to shake.
✦We walked past an alley.
