peace

How?” I asked, my voice soft, almost childlike. My chest ached with the weight of everything I couldn’t say. I was falling for her all over again—falling despite the blood on my hands, despite the fear pressing in from every corner of this broken night.

Shanaya’s gaze didn’t waver. “I don’t have answers to how,” she said quietly, almost like a prayer. “But I believe in God. I know He’ll show us a way out of this trouble.”

Her words should have sounded naïve, but instead they wrapped around me like warmth. My throat tightened.

“You’re the same as before,” I whispered.

Her brow furrowed slightly. “The same?”

“Yes,” I said, trying to hold her eyes. “You haven’t changed. You’re still rough, still stubborn… still impossible to convince.”

That earned a faint laugh from her, the sound brushing against the corners of my heart. For a moment, it felt like nothing outside mattered—not the sirens that might come closer, not the weight of guilt, not my sister’s betrayal. Just us.

I leaned closer, unable to stop myself. She didn’t move away. Her breath mingled with mine, slow and steady, and suddenly all the years we’d lost seemed to vanish.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and gently eased her down onto the floor, the worn wooden boards creaking under us. My fingertips traced her cheek, trembling but certain.

Her eyes widened. She looked stunned, silent, but she didn’t stop me.

For a heartbeat, I just looked at her—the same girl who once held my secrets, who once whispered with me in the dark when we were too young to know what it meant.

My lips brushed hers, soft, uncertain, but real. The kiss tasted of fear and longing, of old wounds and new beginnings. She didn’t resist. Instead, she kissed me back—hesitant at first, then with the quiet strength only Shanaya carried.

When we pulled apart, I could barely breathe.

“Shanaya…” My voice cracked. “I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve you.”

Her hand came up to rest against my face, steadying me. “Maybe not,” she said, her honesty cutting through me. “But I still choose you.”

Tears burned at the corners of my eyes. I pressed my forehead to hers, our breaths mingling, our silence louder than words.

We lay side by side, our bodies close, hearts closer. Neither of us spoke for a long moment.

I thought of when we were seventeen, lying on her bed, whispering about futures that never came true. Back then, we discovered together what we really were—two girls in love, scared but unwilling to let go.

Now, even after everything, nothing had changed.

Her hand slid into mine, fingers lacing tightly.

“We’ll face it,” she said softly. “Whatever comes.”

For the first time in forever, I believed her.

And in that belief, I finally let myself close my eyes, not in fear, but in fragile peace.

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