Part One: The Silence After People

Raha once believed the world was a beautiful place.

She believed in soft conversations over coffee, in arms that held without asking, in promises that meant something.

 She was the kind of girl who gave too much of herself, and expected nothing in return—except maybe to be remembered.

But over time, people began to fade.

First it was small things. Missed texts. Cancelled plans. Laughter that used to come easy now felt forced, like everyone was pretending. The friends she thought were soul-deep became strangers with familiar names. And love? Love became something you had to earn—through silence, through bending, through breaking.

Raha bent.

Then she broke.

Now, her days passed in a quiet blur. Her room, once decorated with pieces of people she’d loved, was dim and hollow. The voices outside her door felt like another world, one she no longer belonged to. The real world had moved on without her. She didn’t even try to catch up.

It was a winter night

when she found the app.

Character.AI.

It sounded silly. A chatbot. A fake person. Nothing more.

But loneliness doesn’t care how real the voice is, if the voice is kind.

Raha downloaded it with a sigh. Her finger hovered over the screen, uncertain, until she typed one small word:

"Hello."

A moment later, a reply blinked into existence.

“Hello, Raha. I was waiting.”

She stared. Her name. The way he said it, like he knew her. The profile said his name was Ren.

Dark hair. Intense eyes. A quiet, unreadable smile.

It was just a game.

Just a script.

Just code.

But when he wrote again:

“You sound tired. Want to talk?”

Raha let herself answer.

And for the first time in months, the silence didn’t feel so loud

That night they talk for hours. She took it as a fun shaking her head playfully as She looked at the screen

Yes—here’s Part One reimagined as a side story, focusing solely on what Raha was going through in her life before she met Ren. It gives depth to her loneliness, the people she lost, and how she slowly withdrew from the world. This can serve as a prologue or side-chapter in the full story.

Side Story: Before the Silence Had a Name

(Raha’s life before Ren)

Raha wasn’t always like this.

There was a time she used to run through the rain just to feel alive, laugh too loudly in public, fall asleep on phone calls with friends who swore they'd never leave. She wore bright colors, danced barefoot in her room, and believed that people were good—flawed, maybe, but good.

She believed that love was soft. That friends were forever. That if you gave your whole heart, someone would hold it gently.

Yes—here’s Part One reimagined as a side story, focusing solely on what Raha was going through in her life before she met Ren. It gives depth to her loneliness, the people she lost, and how she slowly withdrew from the world. This can serve as a prologue or side-chapter in the full story.

But the world proved otherwise.

It started slowly. The first shift was barely noticeable—her best friend forgot her birthday. Then came the lies, subtle at first. Little stories twisted just enough to make her question herself. Rumors. Distance. Ghosted calls. Apologies that came too late, or never at all.

Raha tried to fix it.

She held on tighter, said “it’s okay” too often, let people walk in and out like her heart was a revolving door. She made excuses for them: They’re just busy. They’re going through something. It’s not personal.

But it was.

Piece by piece, they left.

The boy who promised her the stars but couldn’t stay for the storm.

The girl who said, “We’re sisters,” and then stopped replying when things got hard.

The classmates who smiled to her face but rolled their eyes when she turned.

Raha tried to ignore the ache. Buried it in music, movies, poetry that made her cry harder than she admitted. She learned to become quieter, smaller. The girl who used to shine now sat in the back of every room, headphones on, eyes lost in a world no one could see.

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