• Crime - English

    The Tattooed Witness

    August 8, 2025 - By 

    Aparna Thakur Chapter 1 – Blood on the Hills The storm came down like a curse upon the hills, lightning tearing jagged lines across the charcoal sky as the wind screamed through the cedar trees of Dharamshala’s outskirts. Rain lashed against the windows of an old guesthouse nestled precariously on a rocky slope, its pale stone façade flickering in the electric light like something pulled from a fevered dream. Inside, the air smelled of damp wood, old secrets, and the faintest trace of blood. At the top of the narrow staircase, in Room 5, Dev Rana’s body lay sprawled across…

  • Crime - English

    The Dancer’s Last Bow

    August 7, 2025 - By 

    Devika Ashwin 1 The sky above Varanasi was a dusky canvas streaked with saffron and indigo as the Ganga Mahotsav reached its crescendo. On the ghats, thousands had gathered—devotees, tourists, connoisseurs of music, all drawn by the promise of an unforgettable evening. Meera stood behind the thick curtain of the open-air stage, adjusting the pleats of her crimson costume. The scent of jasmine mingled with sandalwood as the sounds of a shehnai drifted from the main ghat. Tonight was supposed to be historic: Guru Radhika Sinha’s final public performance, a symbolic passing of the torch to Meera, her most devoted…

  • English - Romance

    Check-Out After Midnight

    August 7, 2025 - By 

    Saanvi Kapoor One Nikita stepped into the lobby of the boutique hotel in Bangalore, heels tapping softly against the marble floor as the glass doors whispered shut behind her. The rain had stopped moments ago, leaving the air thick with petrichor and neon reflections from the street. She wore her silk blouse slightly unbuttoned, blazer casually draped over her arm, and a weekend bag slung over one shoulder. For once, she wasn’t checking into a five-star chain with her husband or clients. This was her idea, her plan—one night away from courtrooms, colleagues, and the quiet resentment that had begun…

  • English - Young Adult

    Before the Sky Falls

    August 6, 2025 - By 

    Saanvi A. Menon The rain started sometime after midnight, stealthy at first, tapping like fingers on the tin awning outside Mira’s fourth-floor window. She didn’t get up to look. Mumbai rain, especially in late June, had a way of arriving without ceremony but leaving a trail. The fan above her bed slowed, hiccuped, and then stopped altogether. Silence followed, thick as wet wool. The power was out. Again. She lay still, waiting for the noise to return — a whirr, a click, the hallway inverter kicking in — but the darkness held. Beyond her shuttered window, thunder cracked the sky…

  • English - Suspense - Young Adult

    The Echo Between Seconds

    August 6, 2025 - By 

    Kael R. Nakamura The Man Who Didn’t Blink They say the moment you begin to lose time, the rest of you follows quietly. Elias Shin first noticed the distortion on a Thursday, when his breath no longer misted the mirror. It wasn’t a trick of light—he leaned closer, rubbed the glass, even switched rooms—but his reflection stared back unbothered, lips parting, chest rising, yet no fog, no condensation, no presence. Just a face suspended in permanence. He didn’t tell anyone. Not his father who still texted him riddles in Sanskrit, not his friend Jun who managed a Zen café near…

  • English - Suspense

    The Last Breath of Kalimpong

    August 6, 2025 - By 

    Aaryan Kaul Arrival in Mist The taxi wheezed up the winding hills like an asthmatic animal. Rain lashed against the glass. Ayesha Dhar sat in the backseat, her suitcase pressing against her knees, and stared out at the town rising through the fog. Kalimpong looked like it had never heard of sunlight. The trees bled mist. The road disappeared behind every bend. And everything smelled faintly of moss, burnt rubber, and regret. She hadn’t spoken much since leaving Siliguri. The driver didn’t press. He was like most people in the hills — weather-beaten, wary, and not particularly fond of questions.…

  • Crime - English

    Operation 84

    August 6, 2025 - By 

    Rajat Vardhan 1 The banquet hall of the Trident Hyderabad buzzed with soft conversations and clinking glasses as some of India’s top defense scientists gathered to celebrate an internal milestone — Phase 2 clearance of Project Vajra. Among the crowd, Dr. Ranjan Mehta, lead propulsion scientist, raised his glass without much enthusiasm. His eyes drifted often toward the large digital clock above the dais, almost as though he were waiting for something. It was just past 9:30 p.m. when he excused himself from a conversation, stepped outside for some fresh air, and collapsed near the rose garden, clutching his chest.…

  • English - Horror

    The House Beyond Solang

    August 5, 2025 - By 

    Ritoban Chatterjee Part 1: The Snowline Ends Here The road to Solang wasn’t a road anymore. Past the tourist checkpoints and the snowmobilers shouting into the white wind, the tar peeled into gravel, then to silence. Ishaan Sen stood beside the BRO milestone that read SOLANG – 1 KM, the last marker of civilisation before it disappeared under the crust of old snow. His taxi driver had refused to go further. “Bad season,” he’d muttered, not making eye contact. “Locals don’t go that side after winter sets in. You shouldn’t either.” Ishaan had smiled. Writers didn’t scare easy. Or so…

  • Crime - English

    The Burning Ghat

    August 5, 2025 - By 

    Vijoy Menon Part 1: Ashes That Speak The smoke rose like a slow, coiled prayer — grey and indifferent, curling against the dimming sky. At Manikarnika Ghat, the fires had no time to rest. One pyre faded, another was lit. Wood cracked, bones whispered, and the Ganges swallowed the silence of the dead with the same patience it gave the living. The priests moved like phantoms in ochre robes, their hands blackened with ghee and soot. No one cried here. Grief had long since turned into muscle memory. Devkant Mishra stood by the edge of the river, his white dhoti…

  • English - Romance

    A Hundred Letters North

    August 5, 2025 - By 

    Isla Verma The Letter in the Book It was a Sunday shaped like rain. The city hadn’t yet decided if it wanted to pour or pretend, and Anaya stood under the torn yellow canopy of a second-hand bookstall near Churchgate, letting her fingers glide across spines of the forgotten. The old man who ran the stall smoked a cigarette with one hand and flipped through pages with the other, not even looking up as she pulled a faded copy of Wuthering Heights from the stack. The pages were frayed at the edges, browned like toast. Anaya loved that. She liked…