“Please… I’m still a virgin.
I’ve never been with any man before. Not once.”
The words left Meera’s mouth in a broken whisper, dissolving into quiet sobs inside the hotel room.
She was twenty-five years old.
Her name was Meera.
Moments earlier, she had stood outside room 806 of the tallest hotel in the city, clutching her purse so tightly her fingers hurt. The hallway smelled faintly of polished wood and expensive perfume. Everything about the place felt too grand, too serious—like a stage she wasn’t sure she belonged on.
But she had chosen this.
For a year, she had watched Ajay from a careful distance. Thirty-eight. Successful. Calm. The kind of man people described as respectable. At work, he never crossed lines. Never flirted crudely. Never rushed her.
He asked questions.
He listened.
He waited.
And in that patience, Meera had convinced herself of something precious and terrifying:
This is the man I can trust with my first everything.
That night, she had written to him on her own, heart pounding as she typed:
“I want tonight.
I want to be alone with you.
If you want it too.”
His reply came instantly.
“Yes.”
So fast it made her pause.
So fast she nearly changed her mind.
But she didn’t.
She told herself that certainty meant sincerity. That a man who waited a year wouldn’t hurt her. That fear was just nerves.
Now, inside the room, Meera sat on a chair near the bed, her back straight, her hands folded in her lap like a child waiting to be examined. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.
Ajay stood a few steps away.
“Are you scared?” he asked softly.
She nodded, tears spilling before she could stop them.
“Sir… I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “I don’t want to do anything wrong.”
He didn’t move toward her.
He didn’t smile.
Didn’t reassure her.
Didn’t touch her.
He simply looked at her.
For a long time.
His gaze made her uneasy—not because it was hungry, but because it wasn’t. There was no excitement there. No tenderness. Only something sharp and focused.
Relief.
That was when Meera felt it—an instinctive chill.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Ajay finally spoke.
“Good,” he said quietly. “Now I’m convinced.”
The words froze her blood.
Before she could ask what he meant, Ajay turned away and rolled a small suitcase toward the bed. It was the kind you’d expect for a short business trip. Neat. Practical.
He knelt, entered a code, and opened it.
Meera stopped breathing.
Inside were no clothes.
No toiletries.
No medication.
Only files.
Dozens of them.
Each file contained a photograph.
Girls. Young women. Almost her age.
Same hairstyle.
Similar features.
Different names.
But they all looked… unsettlingly like her.
Meera stood up so abruptly the chair scraped against the floor.
“What is this?!” she cried.
Her hands shook as she picked up one folder.
Typed notes stared back at her with cold precision:
“First relationship – Rejected.”
“First boyfriend – Rejected.”
“Emotional attachment – Rejected.”
“Suspicion – Continued surveillance.”
She flipped through another.
And another.
Her vision blurred as she reached the last file.
At the top, it read:
“Observed for 12 months.”
“No romantic involvement.”
“No close emotional bonds.”
“High probability – Suitable.”
Meera dropped the file as if it burned her.
Ajay closed the suitcase.
The zipper slid shut with a final, metallic sound.
The room fell into a suffocating silence.
“I want a woman,” Ajay said calmly, “who has never been tied to anyone before.”
“Why?!” Meera sobbed, backing away. “Why would you do this to people?”
He answered slowly, carefully, as if revealing a truth he had rehearsed for years.
“So that she,” he said, pausing between each word,
“will never become like my mother.”
The meaning hit her all at once.
Meera stepped back, her heart racing, her body screaming at her to run.
In that moment, she understood something terrifying:
She hadn’t been loved.
She hadn’t been desired.
She had been evaluated.
And the man she thought was safe
was never looking for a partner—
only a replacement for a wound he refused to heal.
He continued speaking, as if clinging to an old fear:
—My mother married my father, but she didn’t tell anyone that before that… there was someone else.
At 40… she started hearing voices.
She would say, “That man is in the room every night.
He says, ‘If you hadn’t betrayed me… I wouldn’t have left you.’”
Meera’s body began to go numb.
Ajay’s eyes were frightened, but full of certainty:
—I want a girl like that… who doesn’t have anyone behind her.
Who doesn’t have a past.
So that… there isn’t a “stalker”.
—So that’s why… you followed me for a year?!
—Just so you could cure your illness?
Ajay didn’t deny it.
He took a step forward.
He raised his hand, as if he were going to touch her face:
—You just have to be with me.
So that… I don’t let anyone else take you away.
Mira cried and backed away.
And then…
Final twist
The door to room 806… opened by itself.
A blast of icy wind rushed in.
Ajay’s face turned white.
She stood before Mira, trembling:
“No…
No… That’s mine.
He didn’t love anyone.
It’s not yours…”
Mira turned, trembling, and looked toward the door.
The hallway light was flickering.
There was no one there.
But…
Mira felt it.
A cold hand rested on his shoulder.
And Ajay…
Ajay was looking at that same invisible hand…
as if he were seeing a real, living person.
The door was still.
The air was still.
The silence was so profound that Meera could hear her own heartbeat.
Ajay stood like a shield in front of her…
with a fear on his face that Meera had never seen in a human being.
He murmured, his voice trembling:
“I chose her…
She’s not yours… she’s mine… do you understand?”
There was no other sound in the room.
But Ajay spoke as if he were standing in front of someone…
someone only he could see.
Mira tried to take two steps back,
but as soon as she moved…
that cold, icy hand tightened even more.
Meera couldn’t even scream.
Her throat was dry.
Only a broken whisper escaped her lips:
“Who… is… there…?”
The airflow stopped abruptly.
As if someone had emptied the air from the entire room.
Ajay squeezed his eyes shut and screamed in a panic:
“No!
Don’t touch her!
He… he never loved anyone… leave her alone!”
Mira froze.
“Ajay, what are you looking at?!
There’s nobody there…!”
Ajay interrupted her and shouted,
“He’s here!
At the door…
Behind you…!”
Meera’s heart began to beat faster.
Slowly, she turned her neck…
But there was nothing.
At least… nothing that could be seen with the eyes.
Even so…
The touch of that hand was real.
So real that a sharp pain shot up his shoulder, like a needle.
Ajay recovered from nearly falling to the floor.
He pointed to a corner of the room and yelled,
“I told you to…
leave her alone!
She’s not like you!
She’s never touched anyone else!”
Meera’s blood ran cold.
Suddenly she realized:
that hand wasn’t just on her shoulder anymore.
Fingers… were slowly sliding through her hair.
As if someone were very close to her.
Very close.
Meera’s body shuddered.
Her legs trembled with fear.
“Ajay… please…” her voice trembled. “Get me out of here…”
Ajay slowly raised his head.
His eyes were red:
fear, guilt, and a strange passion…
all mixed together.
He said:
“If we run away now… then he will follow us.”
—But if I stay here…
it won’t take you.
Meera’s heart sank.
“What do you mean?”
Ajay moved slowly,
as if asking permission from something invisible.
—You have to stay with me.
Her voice was dangerously low.
—Only then… will it not touch you.
“Who?” Mira shouted. “Who are you talking about?”
Ajay took a deep breath,
and looking directly at Meera for the first time, said:
“The same man…
the one my mother loved.”
The room became even colder.
Ajay continued trembling:
“She never left…
she chased after every woman…
who came near me.”
Mira choked back tears and said,
“You… you’re crazy, Ajay.
You need help!”
Ajay nodded.
“I’ve known it’s real for years.”
—He kicks his feet…
he bangs on the door…
he breathes inside the room…
and…
Her voice became low.
—And every time I try to be with a girl…
he stays by her side all night.
He touches her.
He leans on her…
Meera’s stomach turned.
Ajay said slowly,
“But… you’re different.
Because you have no past.
No previous relationships.
No memories… no one he can ‘grab’.”
Tears began to fall from Meera’s eyes.
“You’re lying.
You’re sick.”
Ajay suddenly shouted,
“So whose hand is that on your shoulder?!”
Mira froze in terror.
The grip of that icy touch tightened even further.
Now…
she could feel a breath next to her ear.
Slow, heavy, icy.
I was about to scream when…
Thud!!
All the lights in the room suddenly went out.
Darkness.
A thick, suffocating darkness.
Mira waved her hands nervously…
but that invisible hand…
had grabbed her wrist.
Ajay shouted into the darkness:
“No!!
I chose her!
She’s mine!
You can’t take her!!”
Suddenly, a blue flame appeared in the very center of the room…
like someone’s shadow.
For the first time, Meera…
saw her figure.
A long, thin, black shadow…
whose “face” was only darkness.
Like a crater.
The air in the room began to tremble.
Things began to shake.
And that shadow…
slowly…
turned towards Meera.
Meera’s scream got stuck in his throat.
Ajay was screaming like a madman:
“I took her from all the girls!
I rejected them!
I got rid of them!
Let her go now!
She’s mine!
I—”
And then…
The shadow turned its head towards Ajay.
At that moment…
Ajay’s voice went silent.
As if someone had strangled him.
His eyes opened.
His face went white.
He stumbled backward and crashed into the wall.
Meera cried and said,
“Please… help me… someone… please…”
The shadow suddenly lunged towards Meera.
Mira closed her eyes tightly.
But…
contact disappeared.
The room fell silent again.
A low voice arrived…
as if someone were speaking from very far away:
“…It’s not yours…”
“…That…isn’t mine…”
“…And it’s not yours either…”
Suddenly, the lights came back on.
Meera sat on the floor…
breathless.
Her eyes blurred with tears.
Ajay lay unconscious near the wall.
His face was pressed tightly together with fear.
As if the last thing he had seen…
wasn’t human, but something else.
Meera stood up, her legs trembling.
The door was open.
The hallway lighting was normal.
She staggered out…
without looking back.
The door to room 806 closed slowly in the wind…
Click.
And Meera walked for the last time…
touching her shoulder.
It was still a little cold there .
As if someone had just taken their hand away.