Ali dragged himself into the kitchen the next morning.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3D0Uh7JQKc
The sea-green of his eyes was drowned in weary redness, his shoulders slumped .
His mother, Samina Siddiqui, did not turn from the stove.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLeX4fQHvoG
She flipped a paratha expertly , the spatula catching the dough mid-air before it hissed back onto the pan. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvUVdAu0p4g
She brushed a thin coat of ghee across the surface, releasing a warm, buttery aroma.
Only when the bread reached a deep, blistering gold did she glance at him.
“Morning,” she said, sliding the paratha onto a china plate just as Ali collapsed into a chair. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUC5ZpLqTRN
She studied him a beat too long.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0X0autI6VD
“Why do you look like you have met that floating head yourself?”8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQBA14Vfewi
Her tone was light.
“Mama,” Ali’s voice came out rough. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeaHYLfGNYk
“You will not believe this.” 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyCni6WMhbZ
“Try me,” she replied, leaning back against the counter.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKrhOBQkEcx
She turned back to the stove, cracking an egg with a sharp, one-handed flick8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsxVJXD5F65
The shell split clean. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGubKBXMSlD
As the yolk sizzled, she lowered the flame. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPtIreXyIUR
When she placed the fluffy, golden fried egg beside the bread, Ali caught her attention.
“Mama, my colleague Sajjad,” Ali said carefully. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjNeSzI2vNL
“He told me about a vision yesterday. The same woman’s head you described when we were kids.”
As she poured the tea, her gaze drifted toward a horizon decades away.
“The old airport road,” she said quietly. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQpjenGNqC
“The stretch leading toward the police quarters. It was deserted, as it always was in the eighties. October evenings were bone-dry and cold, not like today’s sweltering heat.”
A chill crawled up Ali’s spine. The curtain by the window swayed.
“I was walking home with groceries,” Samina continued.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSKO5o1gCEt
“Your uncle Raza was a few steps ahead. I was thinking about a university assignment due the next day. We took the shortcut to save time.” 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡejPt2KSdjT
She stared into the steam curling from the cup8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDGORQMs2q
.“As we turned the corner, the back of my neck prickled. I felt watched. Maybe it was the cold, the lawlessness of the city, or the rustle of dry bushes. A warning my soul heard before my ears did.” 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDlO8TSLOBF
Ali leaned forward, his breakfast forgotten.
“I felt a presence,” she said softly, “as if someone was walking right beside me. But there were only two of us. Me and my younger brother.”
“Tell me everything,” Ali urged.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnP1g0EEaND
“No more ghost stories for children. I want the parts you left out.”
Samina inhaled deeply and fixed her eyes on the wall hanging .
“It started with a sound. A distant train horn, wailing, coming closer and closer.”
For a brief second, Ali thought he heard it too.
“I tried to ignore it,” she said, her eyelids fluttering shut. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPlETcFSX7R
“But it became deafening. I covered my ears. The grocery bags slipped. Oranges rolled into the dirt. When the noise finally faded, I bent to gather them. Raza was ten steps ahead. He had not heard a thing.”
She drew a breath.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2m96YNEAq
“Then a voice called his name.”
“Raza.”
She pulled out the chair opposite Ali.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkz6LiNDoh9
“It was nasal. High-pitched. Wrong. The third time it spoke, it almost sounded human. Like someone pleading.”
Ali’s throat tightened8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVHxqdTEvSc
.“And you turned.”
“That was my mistake,” Samina whispered.
The color drained from her face.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrfoSn2zPys
“It was just a head. No neck. No body. Hovering before me. Imagine a place so empty even God’s creatures have abandoned it, and then being forced to see what no mortal should witness.”
She shuddered.“The alley was desolate. Not even a stray dog. And that face was spectral white, wrapped in a black scarf that formed a sharp, triangular silhouette. Hollow eyes. Empty. Looking not at me, but through me.”
Her hands began to shake.
“At that moment....my mind screamed to run, but my legs were lead. I tried to scream, but I had forgotten how to speak.” 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMD16WgQvIx
Silence swallowed the kitchen.
Ali reached across the table and covered her hand with his. 8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM3IAVQZmMv
She flinched, then steadied herself in his touch.
“After what felt like centuries, Raza grabbed my hand. The next thing I remember, I was in bed, burning with fever for three days. No doctor or medicine could touch it. I sat there, tongue-tied, staring at a blank spot on the wall.”
She looked at Ali, her eyes wide.
“The neighborhood thought Jamil Sahib’s daughter was possessed.
Eventually, an elder came to the house. A man deep in ascetic retreat. He asked nothing. He told your grandmother that I had crossed a path not meant for me. The entity was searching for someone else, and I had simply been in the way.”
She squeezed Ali’s fingers, her grip tightening.
“That head called Raza’s name. But your uncle heard nothing. I have spent years convinced the apparition was not meant for me. It was meant for him.”
Her gaze drifted past Ali, her voice lowering.
“He walked on, untouched. He did not flinch at the horn. He did not turn at that impossible face. For him, the alley remained a mundane shortcut. Empty. Soundless. Still.”8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUQeTazfsg4
A colder logic crept into her tone.
“Sometimes I wonder if the entity was searching for a Raza, but my brother was not the one. What if he was only a namesake, a ghost in a haunting meant for someone else?”
She straightened abruptly, pushing her chair back.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4O7NIvryHG
A maternal smile returned, though shadows lingered in her eyes.
“Now eat,” she said, pushing the plate toward him. Her fingers rested on the rim for a moment.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ63ePWVTXeV
“Before it gets cold.”
Ali’s voice barely rose above a whisper.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡityPEmD6K2
“Did you ever go back? To that alley?”
She shook her head.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXWwHfhZYp
“Never. The elders warned me. If I crossed its trail again, it might never let me leave.”8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL1md7UdFxJ
Her voice snapped cleanly from memory to command.
“But let me be clear. Your colleague’s story and mine may sound alike, but that does not give you license to play ghost hunter or chase the paranormal. There are far better things in life to pay attention to....
Things that matter. Do you understand me?”
She gestured to the plate again, grounding the moment, anchoring them both to the ordinary, to the real, and leaving that deserted alley behind its shadows.
8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ471gYk13Z3
and then Add to home screen.