Mira’s days had started blending into one another, an endless loop of ordinary routines punctuated by flashes of something extraordinary.
She had tried to ignore it.
Tried to convince herself that the fleeting glimpses of a man in her peripheral vision, the déjà vu of his presence, and the strange weight in her chest were just coincidences.
But they weren’t.
Even now, walking through the rain-slicked streets on her way home, she could feel it the pull.
Like the world was bending toward him, like some invisible thread was tugging at her soul.
She turned the corner and froze.
There he was.
Aarav Vale.
Standing under the dim light of a streetlamp, hair damp, coat clinging to his broad shoulders.
He wasn’t looking at her, not yet but she could feel him before she saw him, a magnetic force she didn’t understand.
Her heart thudded painfully in her chest.
Why did it feel like she had known him forever?
She took a step forward.
Then another.
The thread tightened.
“Why do I feel like…” she whispered, but the words died in the drizzle.
Aarav’s head snapped up as if he had heard her thoughts.
His eyes, sharp and unreadable, met hers. Not a flicker of recognition, not a smile.
Just calm.
Cold, controlled, almost unbearable calm.
“Mira,” he said finally.
Her heart jumped.
He had said her name.
Not in the safe, casual way people said names, but in a way that made the world still around her. In a way that carved into her bones.
I she started, but no words came.
Her voice, the one that had always been so confident, seemed to have abandoned her.
Aarav took a careful step back, hands raised slightly as if to keep her at a distance.
I can’t he said.
His voice cracked, just slightly, betraying something he would never allow to show. Mira felt it, a wave of grief, longing, and something terrifyingly magnetic.
“You can’t what?” she whispered, the thread pulling her closer, tighter.
He swallowed, gaze flicking away, then back. “I can’t… love you.”
The words hit her like ice in her veins.
“Why not?” she asked, voice trembling, though she didn’t understand why her own courage was failing.
He didn’t answer immediately.
His eyes darkened, a storm contained in the depths of him.
“Because every time I do… someone dies. Or everything changes. And I won’t—can’t—risk it. Not again.”
Mira’s chest tightened.
Confusion, frustration, and heartbreak collided inside her.
She didn’t understand, couldn’t comprehend what he was saying, but she felt it in the pit of her stomach.
Every word he said carried a weight she couldn’t lift.
“I don’t understand,”
she whispered, tears threatening.
“Why me? Why us?”
Aarav shook his head.
“It’s not about us.
It’s about… everything else.
Time.
Universes.
Lives I’ve seen end because I let myself care. I won’t let that happen to you.”
Mira’s vision blurred with rain and tears.
And yet, despite everything, the pull the invisible thread didn’t break. It only tugged harder.
“You’re not even trying,” she said, anger rising through her fear.
“You’re just… pushing me away.
You think that will protect me?
Maybe I want to be in danger.
Maybe I… maybe I want you, Aarav.”
He froze.
She had said his name.
And something inside him cracked.
Not completely, not enough for her to see. But enough.
Enough for a ghost of the life they could have had to stir, faint and painful.
“I can’t,” he whispered again, softer this time, almost a plea.
“You already are,” she said, taking a trembling step closer. “Whether you want to be or not.
You already are a part of me. I feel it. I don’t know why… but I do.”
Aarav’s fists clenched at his sides.
He knew she was right.
He felt it too.
Every timeline, every universe, every memory he carried they were all pointing to her.
But some truths were crueler than others.
“I have to leave,” he said finally, stepping back, coat collar turned up against the rain.
His eyes lingered on hers, full of unspoken apology and longing.
Mira’s knees weakened.
“You can’t… just leave,” she whispered.
He didn’t answer.
Only gave her one last look soft, impossible, and filled with centuries of regret and disappeared into the night, swallowed by the rain and the city.
Mira sank to the pavement, drenched, shaking. She didn’t understand what had just happened.
But she knew one thing:
He was the universe she couldn’t resist.
And yet, somehow… he was the one she might never have.
1️⃣ Why do you think Aarav refuses to be with Mira, despite his obvious feelings?
2️⃣ Do you feel the “invisible thread” between them what do you think it represents?
3️⃣ How would you react if someone you felt connected to refused to be near you to protect you?
