• Crime - English

    The Mumbai Syndicate

    August 22, 2025 - By 

    Adrian S. D’Costa Part 1 – The Last Supper The night smelled of salt and rust, the sea breeze drifting from the Arabian coast into the narrow gullies of Colaba. Neon lights flickered above paan shops and half-shuttered bars, their red and blue haze blurring with the cigarette smoke that hung thick in the air. It was a Saturday night, but the streets were too quiet, as if the city itself was holding its breath. Inside Casa Fortuna, an old Portuguese villa-turned-restaurant, twelve men sat around a mahogany dining table polished to an unnatural gleam. Each man wore an expensive…

  • Crime - English

    Cyber Blood

    August 22, 2025 - By 

    Karan Ahuja 1 Raghav Rao sat hunched over the glow of his monitor in the empty IT office, the soft hum of cooling fans the only company in the midnight silence. Outside, Bangalore’s Outer Ring Road buzzed with the faint rhythm of traffic, but inside the glass tower it was a different world—one of endless code, shifting deadlines, and invisible pressure. He was used to the long hours, the quiet loneliness of staying back while his colleagues left for pubs or late-night biryanis. But tonight felt different. As his fingers traced the logic of the application update, line by line,…

  • English - Romance

    The House by the Backwaters

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Shibam Iyer 1 The train slowed as it entered Alappuzha, the rhythmic clatter of wheels softening into a crawl. Ananya leaned closer to the window, her eyes tracing the sight of endless coconut groves swaying gently in the late afternoon breeze, their reflections shimmering across the sprawling backwaters. The air outside looked different, thicker almost, carrying the sheen of humidity and the fragrance of wet earth that no city could ever imitate. As the train screeched to a halt, she stepped down with a deep breath, as though she were inhaling her own past. The station was small, familiar, yet…

  • English - Horror - Suspense

    The Last Tram to Esplanade

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Sandip Chakraborty 1 The tram bell chimed faintly, its echo vanishing into the hushed expanse of Esplanade. Midnight in Kolkata had its own kind of silence—a silence alive with the creak of tram rails, the hiss of distant buses, and the occasional bark of stray dogs. Arup Chatterjee, in his worn khaki uniform, stood at his post with the familiarity of a man who had repeated this routine for thirty years. His eyes scanned the tram’s interior, dimly lit by yellow bulbs that flickered as though uncertain of their duty. There, in the corner seat, as always, sat the passenger.…

  • English - Romance

    Crimson Hours

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Reyaan Q The city had just begun to cool after a day that burned against glass and pavement, the streets humming with the restless pulse of late evening. Mira leaned against the balcony of her rented apartment, a wine glass sweating in her hand, her hair catching the glow of sodium lights. She was restless in a way that had nothing to do with work or deadlines, restless in her body, in the way the skin tingled when touched only by wind. She had lived in the city for almost two years now and yet her nights remained stubbornly quiet,…

  • English - Suspense

    Shadows Over the Strait

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Aarav Knight The Forgotten Map The ocean has its own language, a shifting alphabet of waves and whispers that few can read. Daniel Rourke had spent five years staring at satellite screens, translating that secret script into data points for his employers in London, yet nothing in his training prepared him for what flickered across his monitor on a warm October night. The feed came from an aging satellite repositioned over the Gulf of Aden, a trade route he had studied a hundred times before, but tonight the images were different. Grainy silhouettes of three fast-moving skiffs traced dark streaks…

  • English - Romance - Young Adult

    Love, Chai, and WhatsApp

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Amrita Pandey 1 It was late evening in Karol Bagh, the streets buzzing with the usual chaos of cycle rickshaws, honking cars, and the smell of samosas frying at the corner shop. Ananya Sharma sat at her study table, biology notes spread across her desk, highlighter uncapped but idle. Her phone buzzed with the familiar chime of a WhatsApp message. Expecting it to be her best friend Neha, she unlocked the screen, only to find a text from an unknown number: “Bro, don’t forget tomorrow’s test.” She frowned. Her own mock test was scheduled two days later, so clearly this…

  • English - Young Adult

    The Summer Pact

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Maya Kapoor First Bell of Summer The last day of school always felt like a door being slammed shut and another thrown wide open. The classrooms still smelled faintly of chalk dust and overheated computers, the air buzzing with the kind of restless energy that only came when you knew you wouldn’t be trapped here again for another three months. I shoved my history notebook deep into my bag, even though I’d never open it again. Around me, voices rose in a mixture of laughter and relief. “Freedom!” someone shouted from the back row, and it set off a chain…

  • English - Suspense

    Whispers of the Green Veil

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Arjun Malhotra Episode 1: The Edge of the Unknown The forest began where the last fields ended, as though the earth itself had drawn a line that man dared not cross. From a distance, it looked like a wall of green, dense and silent, but up close it was something stranger—something alive. The trees seemed to lean forward, their branches arching over the boundary, their leaves whispering secrets to the wind. Beyond lay shadows layered so thick that sunlight was reduced to a dim, trembling glow, like the last breath of a candle in a storm. Aranya stood at this…

  • English - Suspense

    The Vanishing Ledger

    August 21, 2025 - By 

    Arjun Malhotra  The Broken Lock The house stood at the far end of Chitpur Road like a stubborn relic, refusing to collapse even as the rest of north Kolkata modernized and decayed in equal measure. Its high arched windows were shattered, its stucco walls streaked with moss, and weeds sprouted in wild abandon from the cracks in its courtyard. The demolition crew had arrived at dawn with their rust-colored machines, but Rohan had been there before them, notebook in hand, his camera dangling from his neck, watching as the first hammer struck the gates of the house. Freelance assignments were…