The Traveler of Silence

Night was deep and heavy. Clouds drifted across the sky like broken thoughts. The air was still, so still it felt like the world was waiting for something to happen. On a cold, empty road, a bus moved slowly forward. Its windows were fogged, and the dim yellow lights inside gave the passengers a blurry look.

In the last row sat a young man named Ayan.

His hands were buried in his jacket pockets, but his fingers wouldn’t stop trembling. He wasn’t scared. He carried the kind of storm only those people know who keep too much inside but say nothing. Ayan was the traveler of that storm.

Outside the window, darkness was thickening, but inside Ayan’s mind, an old story was coming alive. The story that forced him to take this journey.

Strange incidents had been happening in his village for months. Some nights there were lights in the forest. Sometimes footsteps echoed in the empty streets, but no one was there. Animals disappeared without a trace. People said it was wild animals. But Ayan knew… it was something else.

He first understood it when his little sister Hina came running home one evening.

“Bhai… someone is there.”

“Someone? Who?” Ayan asked.

Hina’s eyes were full of real fear. “It wasn’t human.”

Ayan had laughed it off then, but that night he went alone to the forest edge. There he saw a strange glow. And then… he saw it.

A shadow-like figure. Human-shaped, but not human. Like smoke frozen in one place.

The next day the whole village was talking. People said shadows called “Khali” were wandering in the area. Empty beings. Not fully alive, not fully dead. Creatures made of fear itself.

Ayan had decided that day he would find the truth. He would protect his village. He wasn’t the type to run.

Hours passed. The bus moved through winding mountain roads. People slept, scrolled their phones, or stared outside. But Ayan… he was preparing himself.

At 2 AM the bus stopped at a small station. The driver announced a ten-minute break. Ayan stepped out into the cold air. Near him was a tiny tea stall run by an old man with sharp eyes.

Ayan took a cup of tea and stood aside. The old man slowly walked over.

“Son, you’re heading toward the forest?”

Ayan froze. “How do you know?”

“I have seen thousands of travelers,” the old man said. “People who run, people who search. But you… people like you go looking for answers.”

Ayan stayed silent.

The old man sipped his tea. “What you’re looking for… is also looking for you.”

The sentence cut straight into Ayan’s heart.

“What do you know about them?” he asked.

The man’s voice dropped. “Khali are born from broken souls. When fear or sorrow becomes unbearable, a piece of the soul breaks away. That piece becomes Khali.”

Ayan felt a chill. “But why are they coming to the village?”

“Because something is pulling them,” the old man said. “Something painful. Something still not healed.”

Hina’s frightened face flashed in Ayan’s mind. Was this connected to her? Or his family? Or the whole village?

The bus horn blew. It was time to leave.

Ayan asked one last question. “Can I stop them?”

The old man didn’t answer. He only gave a sad smile.

Ayan got back on the bus. He wasn’t just traveling to a forest anymore. He was going into a storm tied to his past, his memories, and his people.

When the bus reached the final stop, Ayan stepped down. Cold wind hit him. The forest ahead was dark, but far inside he saw a faint light.

It was calling him.

Ayan took a deep breath and walked into the darkness.

Seconds later—

He heard footsteps.

Then another.

Then he saw it.

A “Khali”.

A smoke-like figure with sad, hollow eyes.

Ayan stepped forward.

“I’m here… not to fight you. I’m here to understand you.”

The shadow stopped.

Then the whole forest woke up.

One shadow after another.

Ayan's heart pounded, but his courage rose.

This was only the beginning.