Sanvi was terrified-completely paralyzed by fear. Her legs trembled as she reached the gate of her house. Every step felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Still, somehow, with shaking hands and a pounding heart, she managed to unlock the door and step inside.
She already knew what awaited her. She had imagined it clearly-her mother standing there in the kitchen, holding a sizzling hot frying pan, eyes blazing with rage, ready to lash out.
But just then, she heard something she hadn't expected.
Laughter.
Her mother's laughter.
Sanvi paused. That wasn't part of the picture she had in her head. She stepped inside, cautiously, and was startled to see her mother chatting cheerfully with someone. A man.
Their building's landlord had come over, and her mother appeared unusually happy while speaking with him. The smile on her face was unsettling.
Sanvi's gaze shifted to the man-instinctively, she didn't like him.
There was something incredibly off about him. His name was Sonu. He was tall-over six feet, dark-skinned, and monstrously obese, almost like a buffalo in human form. His head was completely bald, his nose rings grotesquely larger than his ears, and his eyes-oh, those eyes-they seemed to burrow into your soul. Black, sunken, and dead. When he smiled, it wasn't warmth that followed-it was fear. The kind that could make the elderly collapse just from looking at him.
Sanvi's POV
The moment my mother saw me, she called me over and introduced me to him. I stood there, nervous, my face pale with confusion and unease.
("I had never seen this man before... and I wish I never had.")
I exchanged a few awkward pleasantries and quickly excused myself to freshen up. I skipped lunch-not because I wasn't hungry, but because I knew I was about to be fed something worse than hunger: anger, disappointment, and punishment.
And the moment finally came.
The door slammed. The landlord had left. And my mother, now no longer smiling, barged into my room with a fury I could feel in the air.
Mother (Screaming):
"Where the hell were you?! We've been waiting for so long! What would that man think of us?! That my daughter wanders around after school with no discipline? You're ruining my name!"
Sanvi (nervously):
"There was a birthday treat... after school... I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
Mother (still furious):
"You better not be lying to me. If I find out you are-I swear I'll cut you into pieces!"
Sanvi:
"O-okay..."
In the corner, Aashvi had been watching and listening the entire time. Her face didn't look sympathetic-it looked angry. For a moment, Sanvi thought her sister might reveal the truth. But she remained silent.
Sanvi's hands still shook long after the conversation ended. Later that night, she told everything to Pranjal, who simply responded with concern, "Okay... I won't let you be late again. I'm really sorry."
POV Shift
For the next few months, things calmed down. At school, Sanvi and Pranjal stole glances during assembly, smiled shyly during lunch, and sometimes walked home together. It was quiet. Peaceful. Almost... too peaceful.
But at home, things were unraveling fast.
Sanvi started noticing how brutal the fights between her parents had become. Every morning began with shouting, abuse, and sometimes even violence. Her younger siblings-Aashvi and 5-year-old Aaryan-stayed quiet, numb to the chaos.
Yes, Sanvi had a younger brother. Despite being only five, he understood more than he should. Smarter than Sanvi, more observant than his age would suggest.
Their parents were no longer just arguing-they were attacking each other. Her father would choke her mother; her mother would claw him with her nails. He would pin her down and beat her while the children watched, frozen. This... this is what Sanvi had grown up with. And now, they didn't even try to hide it. None of the children dared intervene anymore-because they had learned the hard way: stepping in only brought pain.
Sanvi started to hate them.
Hate their marriage. Hate their presence. Hate their hypocrisy.
And all the while, the landlord kept coming-always in the afternoon, always when her father wasn't home. He would stay for hours. Her mother would lock the room door, telling the kids to stay out.
Sanvi noticed how her mother stopped cooking lunch. She was too busy talking to him-laughing, smiling, whispering. She would only use her phone once her husband left for work, never after he returned. As if she had something to hide.
One day, when Sanvi questioned it, her mother entered her room and said:
"We're just friends. Please don't tell your father. He'll misunderstand everything."
And Sanvi, along with Aashvi, agreed... silently. Afraid. Conflicted.
That landlord-Sonu-he was clever. Manipulative. He brought expensive food, sweets, and snacks for the kids. He tried to win their trust, to make them feel special.
And Aashvi-she changed too. No longer angry, no longer emotional. Just quiet. Reserved. Always on her phone, detached from everything.
For a while, things remained silent.
But then... something happened. Something so disturbing, so devastating, that Sanvi could no longer look at herself in the mirror.
She began to hate herself more than anything else in the world.
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