Janaki-Part 2

I didn’t mean to spy. Not really.

But that morning, something told me not to leave the hallway.

Amma had gone out to the veranda to gather the bedsheets. I was fiddling with the broken table fan nearby, the clack of the loose blades and my own heartbeat keeping me company. She was just around the corner—her shadow moved lightly through the half-open door. I could hear her humming faintly, bent low, tugging at something stuck under the cane chair.

Then I heard her slip.

A soft grunt. The sound of her back hitting the tile.

“Amma?” I called out.

“I’m fine,” she said. Her voice sounded normal. But there was something off—like she was holding her breath.

And then I saw him.

Gopal.

He appeared out of nowhere, like he always did, stick in hand and that sick grin crawling across his face.

“You fell... or are you offering?”…