Beyond The Fog

It happened in 2012… One evening in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi something weird, kinda scary, and totally unexpected happened.

Hira was just 8 years old. A normal little girl, playful, full of energy. That evening, like always, she came back from school and was playing outside in the yard with her sister. Loadshedding was common back then, so the streets were kinda dark around sunset.

While they were playing, Hira suddenly said, "I'm coming, just going to the corner."

Her sister didn’t think much, just nodded like usual. But nobody knew… this would be the last sentence they’d hear from Hira for months.

She ran off to the street corner. And then… never came back.

At first, her family thought she went to a neighbor’s house or something. But when like 30–40 minutes passed and she still didn’t return, everyone got worried. They started looking — knocking doors, checking the park, asking everyone… But it was like she just vanished in thin air.

After hours of searching, they called the police. They put her photos everywhere. Even on TV “8-Year-Old Girl Mysteriously Missing from Gulshan-e-Iqbal.”

Her parents were destroyed. Her mom turned into like… a walking ghost. She'd just sit near the door, waiting, hoping Hira would run in like always and hug her. Her dad kept going to police stations and hospitals every night, looking for clues. People on social media shared her picture and prayed a lot. But days passed. Then weeks. Then months.

Six full months. Nothing.

Most people started saying maybe she’s… not alive anymore. The whole area got quiet, like something was broken. People were scared to let their kids play outside. They started suspecting every stranger.

But then… One day — same day, same time — something happened.

A kid in the street screamed, “Hira’s back! She came back!”

Her mom ran to the door — and just froze. It was her. Same little Hira. Same clothes. Same shoes. She was just standing there. Not crying, not smiling. Just standing quietly… like she didn’t even know where she was.

Her mom screamed, picked her up, kissed her all over, cried like crazy — kept asking, “Where did you go? Why did you leave?”

But Hira’s eyes were strange. Like foggy. She said only one thing:

“I just went to the corner… then some fog came into my eyes. And when it cleared, everything was the same. You, the house, the street... everything.”

People were shocked. Police, doctors, even news channels came running. Everyone wanted to know what happened.

And Hira… she kept saying the same thing: "I just went to the street corner. A strange wind came. Everything went blurry. And when it got clear, I was back. I thought only 1–2 minutes passed. But you guys saying 6 months?"

Doctors checked her fully. No weakness. No wounds. No abuse. Nothing. Her clothes were clean like she just walked out of the house 5 minutes ago.

Nobody could understand. If she was missing for 6 months where was she?

Some experts said maybe it was trauma. Maybe something bad happened and her brain blocked the memory like blackout.

But they had no proof. No clue. No logic.

Then people started saying things like: "This wasn’t human. This is from another world."

Some folks said she was taken by jinns. Others believed she entered a parallel world, where time doesn't move same as here.

A few said it’s like those time-travel movies time freeze, time loop, something like that. Crazy stuff, yeah… but nobody had any evidence. Just theories.

Police closed the case: “Missing Reason Unknown.”

But Hira… she wasn’t the same anymore. She stayed quiet most of the time. Would just stare at walls… or the sky. Sometimes, she’d randomly scream: “The fog’s coming back!”

Her parents tried everything. Changed her school. Moved to a new house. But something inside her had already changed something words couldn’t explain.

And the creepiest part?

On the same day Hira came back… another girl disappeared. Same age. Same time. Same corner of the street.

Was it a coincidence? Or had something… started again?

Maybe there’s a crack in time. Maybe another world is watching us. Or maybe… we still don’t fully understand what time even is.

(to be continued…)