The first step into the lake was bitter.
Not just cold — but full of memory. As if the water itself clung to skin and soul, whispering, I know you. I saw you leave her.
Ruhan felt it in his chest before his feet even sank below the surface.
Regret. Guilt. A strange, aching tenderness.
Behind him, Samaya reached for his wrist. Dev followed last, silent but steady. The red guitar case was gone — left on the rocks like an offering, or a promise not to carry old burdens into deep places.
They stepped in together.
Three hearts pulsing like one.
The water should've been shallow — a knee-deep lake, bordered by reeds and fallen trees.
But something was different now.
Each step didn't find earth.
It found depth.
It was like the lake had grown — stretched inward. Not just physically, but in time.
The deeper they moved, the quieter the world above became. No wind. No thunder. Just a slow, humming sound below the surface. Like a distant chorus holding its breath.
And the glow… it grew stronger.
Bluer.
Brighter.
Then Ruhan saw it.
Shapes in the dark.
Not fish. Not debris.
Moments.
The time Arav shoved him off his bike and apologized with candy.
The day Samaya got her first heartbreak and Ruhan sat beside her in silence.
The afternoon Dev cried while watching the rain, thinking no one saw him.
And Aarya —
always Aarya —
laughing, then vanishing.
Smiling, then fading.
The lake wasn't just a lake anymore.
It was the archive of what they refused to carry.
"Stop," Samaya whispered, grabbing Ruhan's arm. "Look."
He turned.
There — beneath them — was a staircase.
Old stone. Covered in silt and moss.
Impossible. And yet — familiar.
It led downward, vanishing into the glowing deep.
Dev stepped forward. "This is it."
Ruhan hesitated. "What if this is a trap?"
Samaya answered, "Then we go together."
They descended, each step pulling something loose from their past.
Laughter.
Shouts.
A cracked photograph.
And finally — a voice.
Faint. Fragile.
"You came late again, didn't you?"
A girl sat on the bottom stair.
Hands folded in her lap.
Eyes bright with anger and love.
Hair braided with a torn pink ribbon.
Aarya.
Ruhan froze. Samaya clutched her chest. Dev dropped to his knees.
She smiled. "Took you long enough."
Ruhan tried to speak, but his throat closed.
Aarya tilted her head. "The world moved on without me. But the lake didn't. It remembered. And it waited."
Dev choked back a sob. "We didn't know how to find you."
She stood. Walked to him. Touched his cheek. "But you came anyway."
Then she looked at Ruhan. "The pact wasn't just words. It was a door. And now… it's open."
She opened her hand.
Inside — a tiny bell.
The one that never rang the night she fell.
She dropped it in Ruhan's palm.
It rang.
And just like that, the water turned warm.
The staircase shimmered.
And the lake —
finally —
let go.
They rose together.
Four.
Complete.