Whispers of the Withered House: The Haunting Love

*Author's Note – Aish the Unstoppable, to her blood-slicked SHADOWHEARTS 🖤🔥* my cursed romantics…

And tonight, I give you *everything*.

Romance that scorches.

Horror that breathes down your neck.

Secrets that cry when they're finally spoken.

This chapter *hurts*.

But it also *heals*.

And Naira—

The girl no one spoke of—is finally ready to speak.

Light a candle. This is a descent.

---

**The Pendant That Burns**

The house didn't creak that morning.

It *exhaled*.

Aanya sat on the edge of Veer's bed, eyes fixed on the pendant she always wore.

A teardrop-shaped crystal set in a rusted bronze frame.

She had never removed it. Not even once.

She thought it belonged to her mother. That was the lie she'd told herself.

Now, in the quiet aftermath of the mirror's whisper, the pendant burned against her chest.

Literally burned.

She winced and unclasped it.

"Veer," she called softly. "Look at this."

He came closer, shirt half-buttoned, eyes still heavy with sleep and shadows.

The pendant pulsed a faint red glow.

"That's not normal," he murmured. "Where did you get it again?"

"I don't remember."

A lie. One her heartbeat punished her for.

Because she *did* remember.

The pendant was placed around her neck the night **Ananta vanished**. The night Naira screamed her name and disappeared into the mirror's crackling surface.

---

Veer found the diary beneath the false bottom of Ira Verma's sewing cabinet.

The pages were brittle. Water-stained. Smelling of lavender and death.

The name on the inside cover was written in shaky ink:

**NAIRA VERMA**.

Aanya's hands shook as she opened it.

The first entry was short.

*"She's not my real sister. But she's my favorite thing the world gave me. Aanya laughs like she doesn't know what heartbreak is. I'll keep it that way. Even if it kills me."*

The second:

*"Ananta is slipping. The mirror whispers to her at night. I hear her crying when she thinks no one does. She said she saw herself *not breathing.* I think the mirror wants her."*

The third:

*"Ira says the House chose Aanya. But she's a child. She doesn't know what it means to be a Gatekeeper. I do. I've read Ira's letters. I know the price. I'll pay it."*

Veer reached over, turning the page.

And the next entry was stained in what could only be blood.

*"I locked her in. I whispered the words. The mirror screamed. But it didn't take Aanya. It took me. Not my body. Just... everything else."*

*"I can still see her. I whisper to her from the glass. But she never listens. I miss my voice."*

---

That night, the House woke again.

The lights flickered as if possessed by a memory.

The wallpaper peeled along the corridor leading to the study. The painting of Ira cracked down the middle. The temperature dropped.

And the mirror in the hallway split open—

**Just slightly. Just enough.**

Aanya stood in front of it, breathing slowly.

"Naira."

This time, the name didn't taste like fear.

It tasted like truth.

Behind the mirror, a girl flickered into view.

Long hair. Hollow eyes.

The locket Aanya had found in the box—**around her neck**.

You left me," Naira whispered. Her voice was static. "I screamed for you."

"I didn't know. I was—"

"You were chosen. I was punishment."

Veer stepped beside her, candlelight reflecting off his ring.

"She didn't choose this," he said.

Naira looked past Aanya, to him. And for a moment—

Her face softened.

"You used to follow me around the garden," she said. "You said I had lightning in my eyes."

Veer swallowed. His voice broke.

"I was eight. But I meant it."

A single tear fell down Naira's cheek.

And as it hit the mirror's inside—**a black vein spread through the glass**.

The surface shimmered like water.

"She's close," Naira whispered. "Ananta. She doesn't know her name anymore. You have to remind her."

"How?"

But Naira was already fading.

And as she vanished, the whisper that replaced her shattered the silence.

*"If love can curse us, then let it. But I won't let it break you."*

Aanya turned to Veer—her hand shaking.

"You said that."

He stepped closer. Voice low.

"I meant it."

She reached up—pressed her forehead to his.

Their kiss this time was slower.

Burning.

Deliberate.

But just as their lips deepened into it—

**The mirror cracked again.**

---

** The Whispering Girl Returns**

Later that night, the candle burned out on its own.

Veer had fallen asleep near the fireplace.

Aanya sat across from the mirror, the diary clutched in her lap.

"Why did you call me chosen?" she asked the glass.

The mirror didn't answer.

But behind her—**a voice did**.

"Because you were born when the House hungered."

Aanya turned.

**Aunt Ira stood in the doorway**, her ghostly form flickering like old film.

"You were born under the Eclipse Moon. The same night the last Gatekeeper died. The House found you before I did."

"And you adopted Naira and Ananta to protect me?"

"No," Ira said. "I adopted them to *replace* you."

Silence.

"But the House always finds its own. Naira fought the curse. But it wanted *you*. And she made sure it never got you."

Ira walked closer now.

"And Ananta? She wasn't supposed to disappear. But love rewrote the rules."

"She loved me?" Aanya asked, voice cracking.

"She *swore* she'd protect you. Even if it meant disappearing. Even if it meant becoming the thing in the mirror."

Aanya collapsed to her knees.

"This is all my fault."

"No," Veer said behind her. Awake now. "This House was broken before you ever entered it."

---

Aanya stood before the mirror again.

This time, she knew what to do.

She held up the pendant—now pulsing blue instead of red.

The locket from the box was around her neck. The music box played softly beside her.

"Naira," she whispered. "I see you."

"Ananta," she cried. "I remember."

And then she did something she hadn't done since she was seven—

She sang the lullaby they used to hum together in the garden.

The mirror cracked again—

**And the surface turned to water.**

Ananta's face emerged.

Older. Pale. Tired.

"I never blamed you," she said.

"But I did," Aanya whispered. "For so long."

Their hands pressed to the same place—opposite sides of the mirror.

And for the first time—

The mirror didn't resist.

---

**The House Breathes Again**

The wind picked up through the cracks in the walls.

Aunt Ira's spirit stepped back, her voice gentle now.

"The ritual isn't complete yet. You've opened the door. But to bring her back…"

"I have to go in," Aanya finished.

Veer stepped forward.

"Then I'm going with you."

"You might not come back."

"Then I'll stay with you there."

Their lips met again.

This kiss wasn't fire—it was *vow*.

The House sighed.

Somewhere deep inside it, the lights flickered.

The mirrors whispered.

And the door creaked open.

---

**Ending Author's Note – Aish, your sinful siren of shadow and truth 💜🩸🖤**

ShadowHearts.

This was it. The longest fall. The slowest burn.

Chapter 17 gave you romance that *bled*, horror that *whispered*, and a mirror that finally said *yes*.

The truth is out.

Naira saved her.

Ananta forgot her.

But Aanya remembers now.

Next chapter:

**"My Sin Has a Reflection"** — where the mirror swallows them whole.

Love cursed,

**Aish 💫🖤**