Sona pov.
For someone who has spent most of her life being the quiet observer, I never expected happiness to arrive like a storm… loud, reckless, unstoppable. It crashed into me the moment Arjun confessed. I still remember the way my world snapped into focus when he said it, like the universe finally exhaled after holding its breath far too long.
And I… I wasn't supposed to feel this much.
Not this warmth.
Not this sweetness.
Not this beautiful, ridiculous ache that made my ribs feel too fragile for my own heartbeat.
But with him, I couldn't help it.
Even now, when I think back to the moment he whispered it, my cheeks bloom with that fever I can't hide. The kind that he teases me about, pulling me closer until my bones go soft and my mind stops working. I don't know if it's love or obsession or some twisted mix of both, but I know it's mine. I know it's real.
And for the first time in my life… I wasn't running from the feeling. I wanted it. I wanted him.
Maybe that makes me foolish.
Maybe that makes me prey.
But even prey can crave the jaws that hold them.
Everything after that felt like watching my own dream from the outside.
Kabir and Riya's whole chaotic love-war blooming beside us. Their constant bickering turning into stolen touches when they thought no one saw. The way Kabir would glare at Arjun every time Arjun so much as brushed his fingers against my waist. Like some elder sibling of mine. The way Riya rolled her eyes but still melted whenever Kabir said her name in that rough way of his.
Four idiots in love, apparently. Two couples who had no business being this happy in a world that was already hunting us.
Still… laughter found us, like sunlight slipping under a locked door.
We had meals together, messy, loud, full of arguments over dessert. We drove through small towns, music blasting, the wind stealing our words but not our joy. Even the nights felt soft long conversations in dim hotel rooms, quiet confessions under blankets that smelled like someone else's laundry detergent.
For once, the world wasn't chasing us.
For once, I wasn't scared.
For once… they felt like home.
And in all that I forgot who i was.
I stoped being sharp.
I stoped observing.
I let my guards down.
And that was my mistake, my first and worst mistake ever.
Love became my weakness.
then Paris happened.
Paris didn't feel like a city. It felt like a pulse. A heartbeat under our feet. A living, breathing promise that everything beautiful still existed.
The lights spilled across the river like gold tears. The Eiffel Tower shimmered as if dipped in stardust. The streets smelled like fresh pastry, gasoline, and nightan intoxicating mix that made me feel brave in ways I shouldn't.
I kept catching Arjun looking at me like I was something new. Something rare. Something he never thought he'd get to keep. And I knew he saw everything the fluttering, the awe, the quiet wonder I didn't dare speak aloud.
"Sona," he whispered once, when the city stretched out beneath us, glowing like a fallen constellation. "You look like you were born for this place."
I laughed, but he held my face and kissed me in that way that erased laughter entirely.
He is always like that he never just kisses me he always eats me. Making me go all weak in knees and blank in mind.
Kabir and Riya were chaos behind us, of course. Stealing kisses on a bridge. Arguing about which pastry was better. Running around fountains like children. Riya filming everything while Kabir tried to steal her phone.
For a moment, we were normal.
For a moment, the world let us breathe.
But beneath all that happiness… something else lingered.
A pulse in the air that didn't belong to Paris.
A weight on the back of my spine.
A pair of unseen eyes threading through the crowd like smoke.
I'd felt it since the journey began — the faint prickling of being watched, like a shadow trailing one step behind. But here, in Paris, it curled against my neck with colder fingers. The city was too loud to notice the quiet danger hiding underneath it. Too bright to reveal the darkness weaving just behind us.
I didn't tell Arjun.
Not because I wanted to hide it, but because I didn't want to shatter this rare bubble of peace. His smile had been real these days… real in a way I'd never seen before. And breaking that felt like a crime I couldn't commit.
So I stayed silent.
And that was my second mistake.
Yet i held his hand tighter.
I kept the fear tucked under my ribs.
But the eyes followed.
Always.
Even when we reached the hotel.
Even when we danced around the little room, laughing like fools.
Even when I changed into a dress Arjun said would make him lose his sanity.
Even when Riya dragged me to the balcony to gossip about Kabir while the boys argued downstairs.
The eyes were there.
Watching.
Waiting.
Hunting.
And maybe that's why I clung to the joy and bliss even harder.
Because happiness isn't permanent.
Because dreams end.
Because prey runs faster when the predator is close.
But the world didn't know one thing about me:
I may be the prey.
But I'm not harmless.
It was definitely not first time i was being hunted we came here after getting our hands ditry with blood while only being collage. Now with degree we were lawyers officially.
And Nor am I alone.
Arjun was beside me. Kabir and Riya too. Braver. Sharper, dangerous, then before. Four hearts moving together through a city that glittered like a fairytale and throbbed like a warning.
Tonight felt perfect. Too perfect.
Which is probably why everything is about to crack.
We had no idea what waited for us.
No idea how close danger already stood.
No idea how thin the line between dream and nightmare had become.
But for now… just for this first half… I let myself enjoy it.
I let myself feel wanted.
Loved.
Seen.
I let myself pretend the shadows weren't breathing down my neck.
I let Paris hold me in its glittering palms, knowing something dark was tracing our footsteps.
Because soon… too soon… the hunt would begin again.
And I wouldn't be ready.
But I would survive.
I always do.
And god it happened too soon.
I should've known the universe never gives without taking something back.
Maybe that's why the air in Paris tasted sweeter than it should have. Why Arjun's touch felt deeper. Why Kabir and Riya's laughter rang too bright, too careless. It was all a warning disguised as a blessing, and I idiot that I am swallowed it whole.
If fate had a face, it was smiling at me that day.
Smiling the way predators do before they sink their teeth in.
We left the little café near the river with hot chocolate still warming our hands, Kabir humming something off-key, Riya recording the Eiffel Tower like she had been paid to worship it, and Arjun… Arjun kept brushing his shoulder against mine like he couldn't stop reminding me I belonged to him. As if I ever could forget it anyways.
I didn't know it would be the last easy moment.
The last unbroken breath.
The last time my heart beat without fear braided inside it.
The road outside the city shimmered under streetlights as we climbed into the open jeep Kabir "borrowed" from the hotel manager with a wink that could qualify as a crime.
I sat beside Arjun, pressed against his side, the wind tugging at my hair like a playful warning.
"Night drive?" Riya chirped, already climbing into the back.
"Night hunt," Kabir corrected,
More like disaster waiting to happen, arjun muttered revving the engine like a man flirting with danger.
I laughed. I laughed like a fool who thought she had time.
If I could go back, I'd slap the smile off my own face.
The first sign came like a whispered secret small, almost ignorable the faint reflection of headlights in the rear mirror. Then another. And another.
Cars piling behind us like silent shadows.
"arjun," kabir said quietly, voice tightening. "Slow down."
arjun didn't.
he never does.
Riya noticed next. "Why are there so many cars on this side of the highway?"
My heart tightened. I knew the answer.
I had known for days.
I had felt the eyes, the breath, the presence trailing me like a cold thread.
And still I said nothing.
One by one, the cars behind us shifted lanes, spreading like wolves circling prey. The road stretched empty ahead, but behind… a pack formed.
"Hold on," arjun murmured.
The jeep jumped forward as he accelerated, and the wind ripped through my hair with a scream. Arjun's hand gripped my thigh, protective, grounding. But under his steady touch, his pulse betrayed him.
The first car lunged toward us.
A violent swipe.
Metal screeching against metal.
The jeep shuddered.
Riya gasped.
My breath broke.
The night changed shape.
Another car appeared from the left.
Then the right.
A box closing around us.
"Arjun" Kabir started.
"I see it," Arjun snapped, voice tight.
Lights swirled. Horns blared. The road narrowed in the darkness like it didn't want to be part of whatever was coming.
I felt it.
Our stalker's presence.
No longer distant.
No longer hidden.
Close.
So close it felt like someone was breathing against my spine.
I wanted to scream.
To confess.
To tell Arjun I had sensed this long before.
But the words drowned in my throat.
The second hit was violent one of the cars clipping our back wheel, the jeep skidding sideways.
Riya screamed Kabir's name.
Arjun pulled me into him like his arms were armor.
My nails dug into his shirt.
Then Kabir did something stupid and brilliant he reached under the seat and pulled out a gun.
"Kabir !"
"Move!" he barked.
The jeep swerved as he twisted back, aimed, and fired.
The shot cracked across the highway like lightning splitting the night.
But missed he'd missed three shots before I annoyingly snatched gun from him and fired myself.
A tire burst behind us.
A car spun out.
Headlights exploded.
Sparks showered the road.
For a breathless second, everything slowed.
The cars behind backed off.
The chase loosened.
The world felt normal again.
I inhaled.
My lungs trembled.
My pulse softened, just a little.
And then…
The universe collected its debt.
A massive shadow appeared ahead.
Silent.
Sudden.
Unavoidable.
A truck.
Crossing the road.
Blocking the highway like a dark wall.
"Arjun!" I choked.
His eyes widened.
Riya's hand grabbed mine so hard it hurt.
Arjun's arms locked around me.
The world collapsed into one blinding second.
The jeep collided.
Metal screamed.
Glass burst.
My body flew forward.
Something warm poured down my cheek.
Arjun shouted my name broken, desperate.
But the sound was swallowed by the crash.
The impact stole everything.
My breath.
My sight.
My thoughts.
In the spinning dark, a single truth stabbed through me.
I should have told them.
I should have warned them.
I should never have been happy.
I should never have let myself love so loudly.
Because happiness paints a target on your back.
Because joy makes you slow.
Oblivious.
Easy to break.
And now…
because of me…
I was losing everyone.
I felt Arjun's fingers slipping from mine.
Riya's grip fading.
Kabir's voice echoing through water.
The world dissolved into black ink.
The cold swallowed me.
I lost everything before I lost consciousness.