• English - Suspense

    The Guest Room

    July 24, 2025 - By 

    Niyati Sharma The Perfect Escape The road to Rose Hollow curved like a question mark through the misty ridges of the Lake District. Fog clung to the narrow lanes like a hush that had forgotten how to lift. Alice kept her eyes on the pine-shaded drive as Tom navigated their little rented hatchback past an iron gate that creaked open without assistance. The gravel crunched beneath their tyres as the house came into view. “That’s… beautiful,” Alice said, finally breaking the silence. The cottage was postcard-perfect—stone walls laced with ivy, a red-tiled roof sloping under decades of moss, and two…

  • English - Suspense

    The Elevator Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore

    July 24, 2025 - By 

    Part 1 – The 47th Floor The first thing Maya Collins noticed about the 47th floor was the silence. Not the kind that came from focused minds or noise-cancelling walls. This silence was thick. Artificial. Like the air itself held its breath. The elevator pinged softly behind her, then slid shut with a whisper. She turned to face the floor. Rows of polished glass offices stretched in clean symmetry. Frosted doors. Sleek desks. Not a single paper out of place. No chatter. No laughter. Just the rhythmic hum of overhead LEDs and the distant murmur of printers working alone. Maya…

  • English - Romance

    Under the Same Stars

    July 23, 2025 - By 

    Shibani Deshmukh The cold hit Dr. Neha Kapoor before she even stepped out of the jeep. The wind in Spiti Valley wasn’t just chilly—it carried a weight, a silence that wrapped itself around her city-worn senses. She tightened the scarf around her neck, blinking at the vast, arid landscape dotted with whitewashed stupas and jagged peaks dusted with snow. Kaza looked like a forgotten outpost painted in muted tones—nothing like the neon haze of Mumbai. Her phone had lost signal three hours ago, and the absence of constant vibration felt more like amputation than relief. A dozen strangers from different…

  • Crime - English

    The Last Stop at Churchgate

    July 23, 2025 - By 

    Mithilesh Sharma 1 The last train of the day hissed into Churchgate station like a tired animal, exhaling its mechanical breath into the near-empty platform. The digital clock above flickered—11:17 PM. A young woman in a pale blue kurti stepped off the 10:45 PM Borivali fast local, clutching her jute bag close. Nikita Majumdar. Her phone buzzed once in her pocket, but she didn’t check it. The cameras caught her image in three places—exiting the ladies’ compartment, walking past the stationery kiosk, then disappearing behind the pillar near the service stairwell. After that, nothing. The next time anyone saw her,…

  • English - Suspense

    The Vanishing at Vaitarna

    July 22, 2025 - By 

    Sourendra Kumar The envelope was old, yellowed at the edges, and bore no return address. Just her name — Kavya Rao — scrawled in ink that had smudged ever so slightly, as if the writer’s hands had trembled. It had arrived amidst a stack of predictable mail — utility bills, press invites, and a food delivery coupon — but the moment Kavya touched it, something shifted. Inside was a faded black-and-white photograph of a mist-covered river and a torn note in careful block letters: “They never left — they were taken. Vaitarna doesn’t forget.” She stared at the image. The…

  • Crime - English

    Mirror of Shadow

    July 22, 2025 - By 

    Sujan Ganguly 1 The rain had just begun to tap lightly against the wrought-iron balconies of Ballygunge’s aging colonial mansions when Ayesha Dutta was last seen. It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon in late July, and the streets of the upscale South Kolkata neighborhood glistened with monsoon stillness. Ayesha, seventeen and self-possessed beyond her years, had told her mother she was going to visit a friend to discuss a school literary project. Instead, she walked into the ivy-covered gates of Ananda Apartments — a five-story heritage building, once home to freedom fighters and now to retired bureaucrats, eccentric artists, and…

  • Comedy - English

    The Divorce Planner

    July 22, 2025 - By 

    Suparna Verma 1 Maya Iyer adjusted the collar of her navy-blue jumpsuit and glanced once more at the ornate wall clock above her desk. 11:27 a.m. The Deshmukh settlement was scheduled for noon, but she knew they’d be late. High-profile clients always were—especially when their breakup had been trending on social media for a week. She sipped her filter coffee from the oversized wine glass she insisted on using—her tiny rebellion against conventional labels. Her office, nestled in a sleek corner of Banjara Hills, didn’t scream “divorce.” It whispered it—soft couches, muted pastels, and an aroma diffuser that smelled like…

  • English - Horror

    The Seventh Step

    July 22, 2025 - By 

    Veena Mehta One The ancient ghat on the banks of the Narmada shimmered under the golden light of Kartik Purnima. Clay lamps floated silently on the water like drifting prayers, their flames barely flickering in the still air. Pilgrims descended the wide, weathered stone steps in silence or chant, some with folded palms, some with copper pots brimming with sacred water. The Deshmukh family, visiting from Pune, stood together at the edge of the ghat. Vinay adjusted his spectacles while Malini held tightly onto their youngest daughter Ahalya’s wrist. The girl, all of eight years old, was already tugging away—drawn…

  • English - Young Adult

    The Solar Eclipse Diaries

    July 22, 2025 - By 

    Riya Bhattacharya 1 The sun hung low in the Kolkata sky, its light strangely muted as if nature itself was holding its breath. The city buzzed with excitement over the impending solar eclipse, the rare astronomical event that had drawn both superstition and science into equal frenzy. But sixteen-year-old Isha Sen couldn’t care less. Trapped in her family’s ancestral home in North Kolkata, a crumbling mansion older than the city’s electric lines, she fidgeted through incense smoke and the endless drone of priests chanting shlokas. Her mother had insisted they be there for “tradition,” and her grandmother, Dida, had only…

  • Crime - English - Suspense

    The Clay Idol Murders

    July 22, 2025 - By 

    Debasish Guha Chapter 1: The Cracked Clay The scent of wet earth and incense filled the narrow lanes of Kumartuli as the morning sun filtered through bamboo scaffolding and half-finished goddesses. It was five days before Mahalaya, and the air in Kolkata shimmered with anticipation. The idol-makers worked tirelessly, smearing layers of straw and clay onto skeletal bamboo frames, coaxing divine forms into being. But something had gone terribly wrong at Workshop No. 14. Apprentice boys stood frozen outside, whispering in hushed tones as their trembling eyes stayed locked on the massive figure of a half-finished Durga. The goddess’s eyes,…