Episode 1 — she chose her.

by brewingdusktales

The godown smelled of burnt rubber and stale incense - a place cleaned to remove the smell of old dried blood stains under it's brick. A faint tube light flickered above — making the atmosphere full of tension.

Outside, the city moved fast with its usual chaos, but inside this compound, even the time didn't dare to move.

Twenty girls stood barefoot on the cold cement floor- eyes downcast and hands at the back.

At the far end, sitting on a battered wooden chair too dignified for its age, she watched.

Black kurta. Kohl-heavy eyes. She didn't move. She didn't blink. And yet, every girl in that room flinched under her commanding silence.

A man with a register coughed.

"Madam, shall I call them one by—"

She raised a hand indicating to stop.

Then she stood.

No introduction. Just the calculated click of her heels across the godown floor.

She walked past the first girl. “Too soft.”

Past the second. “Too scared.”

The third — “Too smart for her own good.”

Then she stopped.

The tenth girl. The quietest of them all. Dark jeans, plain black kurti, hair tied back in a loose braid, face half-shadowed under the dim light. Nothing about her screamed special. But something did.

She took a step closer.

The girl didn’t twitch. Didn’t blink - as if she was unaffected by the presence of the queen.

“Name?”

The girl’s voice came soft. Not meek. Just... restrained.

“Aru.”

The queen could feel her jaws tightened but didn't let that last for too long.

" Rivanika chooses you " she said shortly before returning to the old chair that carried a not so good past drenched with blood.

Later that night, the godown was empty and dark.

No guards.

Just one girl by the wall. Alone.

She sat under the hook rack — back against the stone wall, face lost in shadow.

A single metal hanger above her creaked gently in the fan’s dying breeze.

She didn’t touch it.

She didn’t move at all.

For a long time, she stared straight ahead —

at the chair where Rivanika - the feared Queen had sat.

And then, quietly she stood and glanced.

Glanced at the hook once.

Just once.

And walked into the dark.

The hanger tilted again.

No wind.

To be continued.