• English - Suspense

    The Silent Neighbor

    Arjun Mehra I carried my boxes up the third-floor because the lift wheezed and stalled and there was nobody to complain to at nine at night. The landing bulb blinked, giving the corridor a feeling of breathing, and my new door, 3B, looked like a mouth that had forgotten how to smile. I wanted anonymity: an unremarkable building, a small deposit, closed doors until my thoughts stopped arguing with the past. The lock turned cleanly. The rooms smelled of old paint and last year’s rain, dull enough to feel like starting over. Across the landing stood 3A. Curtains drawn, a…

  • English - Suspense

    A Silent Apartment in Andheri

    Pranoy Kr. Shah 1 The rain had been falling since dawn, washing the dust off the skeletal towers of Andheri West as Vedant and Nayantara Chitnis entered their new home on the sixteenth floor. The apartment, 1604, was tastefully modern—a minimalistic shell waiting to be warmed by the presence of a newly married couple. The realtor had called it a “luxury compact,” but Naya thought it felt like a box floating in fog. White walls, dark wood paneling, and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the blurred skyline of Mumbai gave it the illusion of space, though a strange emptiness clung to…