Location: Ashtashram (Old Community Hall), KolkataDate: September 23, 2029Time: 5:55 AM
Khushi had stopped talking.
Not because she couldn't.Because something inside her had gone quiet.
The kind of quiet that happens when your world collapses, and even your thoughts feel too loud.
She followed Yash everywhere.Sat beside him while he worked.Held his hand when the others screamed in their sleep.
And at night, when the city outside burned,she whispered a prayer that she never finished.
Yash didn't ask her to speak.
He didn't tell her to "be strong."
He knew too well what that lie felt like.
So he let her exist — in silence, in presence, in grief.
The shelter was slowly becoming something real.
More people came — 3, then 7, then 12.
An old man with a broken leg.A nurse named Asha.A drunk mechanic who could fix broken heaters.A teenager who didn't stop shaking.
All of them found their way to the old building.
All of them followed him.
One morning, Yash found Khushi drawing again.
Charcoal on wall.No color. Just shape.
A woman with many arms.Red eyes. Sharp tongue. Crown of skulls.
Kali.
Khushi had never seen the goddess.
But she felt her.
The divine presence that lingered in Yash — that followed him, protected him, changed the air when he was angry.
"Who told you about her?" Yash asked softly.
Khushi looked up.
Paused.
Then touched her own chest.
"She talks… in dreams," she whispered.
It was the first thing she'd said in days.
That night, the dreams returned.
But this time, not just for Yash.
Everyone in the shelter saw something.
A burning forest.A blood-red river.A woman walking through fire, her feet leaving no mark.A whisper: "The Ash will protect you. But only if you protect each other."
In the morning, they found food outside the door.
Not a lot. Just enough for one day.
Wrapped in ash-covered cloth.
No note. No tracks.
Yash didn't ask questions.
He just shared it — equally, quietly.
And when Khushi handed him her latest drawing — him standing in front of a giant ash wave — he smiled for the first time in weeks.
A small smile.But real.
She didn't speak much after that.
But she didn't need to.
Because in her presence, Yash remembered what it meant to feel human.
And in his presence, Khushi remembered what it meant to feel safe.
They weren't healing yet.
But they weren't breaking anymore.
And in this world — that was everything.