22/06/2026
Part 5
Days passed, and Nandi still didnāt return.
At first I told myself it was nothing. People say things they donāt mean all the time. But she didnāt feel like that. She was too real in my memory, too detailed in my mindāthe way she stood, the way she spoke, the way she looked at me like I was something worth noticing.
I should have asked for her number. That thought kept coming back to me like a wound I kept reopening. But then againā¦ what would I have done with it? I had no plan, no reason, no life that could justify calling someone like her.
Slowly, my mind started turning against me.
I began questioning even her existence.
Sometimes I would stop working and just stare at nothing, wondering if Nandi was ever real at allā¦ or just a beautiful mistake my tired mind created. At one point, the thought became darkerāwhat if she wasnāt human at all? Something placed in my life just to confuse me, to drain me quietly while I stood powerless in a scrapyard full of rust and silence.
The days at the scrapyard became heavier. Work slowed. My thoughts didnāt.
The old man who hired me had gone away to the villageāsomething about a family gathering in Murehwa. That only made the place feel emptier, like time itself had forgotten me there.
And in that emptiness, my mind began building its own world.
I would see her in corners where no one stood.
Hear her voice when no one spoke.
āSee you tomorrowā¦ā
The words echoed even when I knew she was gone.
At night, sleep didnāt feel like sleep anymore. I would wake up smiling at conversations that never happenedāmoments I was sure I lived with her. Talking, laughing, sitting closeā¦ things that existed only in my head. And the worst part was, part of me started believing them.
I wasnāt just remembering Nandi anymore.
I was creating her.
And I didnāt know how to stop.
Days blurred together until one afternoon everything changed.
The old man had just returned. The scrapyard felt slightly alive again, the usual sounds of metal and footsteps coming back.
Then suddenlyā
āBrian! Brian!ā
His voice cut through the noise.
I turned.
āSomeone is asking for you at the gate.ā
My heart paused before it even understood why.
I walked slowly at firstā¦ then faster.
Because something inside meāsomething I had stopped trustingāwhispered a name I hadnāt heard out loud in days.
Nandi.
And as I reached the gateā¦ I stopped.
To be continuedā¦
Part 6
