Chapter 17: Red Thread

POV: Ira

There were only two things Ira knew for sure now:

1. Sanya’s name was the key to a door Aarav had never wanted to open.


2. And that Meera had tried to blow that door off its hinges.

The problem was �" no one had been listening.

She returned to Meera’s journal again, this time with a magnifying glass and a blacklight. Not because she was paranoid.

Because she was desperate.

That’s when she saw it.

The ink shimmered faintly under the blacklight, right at the edge of a seemingly blank page �" between two entries about fear and forgiveness. A message, written in lemon juice, revealed only now:

> “He told her she was dramatic.”

Below it:

> “So she left. Like Sanya. Like Kiara. Like shadows under locked doors.”

Ira’s fingers trembled. She turned the page and gasped.

A symbol.

Drawn in invisible ink.

A delicate red thread spiraled in the shape of a noose �" but loose, as if waiting for someone to tug it.

---

She went back through the entire journal, now under blacklight. The thread showed up again and again, woven into the corners of entries about Vivaan. Always faint. Always hidden.

A code.

A pattern.

Meera had been screaming the truth in ink that no one could see.
---

On a hunch, Ira dug up a scanned page of Kiara’s final sketch �" the faceless man, the red thread, the bird trying to fly.

When she overlaid it with Meera’s thread symbol, they matched perfectly.

It was never a metaphor.

It was evidence.
---

That night, she called Aarav.

> “I found something.”

His voice was tired, worn. “More ghosts?”

> “They’re not ghosts,” she said. “They’re girls who tried to survive Vivaan.”

> “I know.”

Silence.

> “Ira,” Aarav finally said, voice cracking, “I didn’t believe Sanya. I didn’t believe Kiara. I told Meera to let it go. I thought I was protecting them from rumors. But I was protecting him.”

> “No,” Ira said firmly. “You were protecting the version of him you still wanted to believe existed.”

---

The next morning, a package was delivered to Ira’s doorstep. No sender listed.

Inside:

A bundle of letters.

A sketch torn in half.

A flash drive.
One line written in red ink:

> “If you’re reading this, it means you found the thread. Now pull.”