"All the reports came back perfectly normal. Your niece has no physical illness. Even so, I will prescribe some mild medication."
The doctor continued writing on her prescription pad. Mrs. Gotri and her niece sat across the heavy desk. The aunt flinched slightly, casting a nervous, unsettling glance to her left at the young girl. Lavanya was simply sitting there, calmly observing the room with an entirely blank, hollow expression.
"But Doctor, she has been behaving like a completely different person every single day," Mrs. Gotri pleaded. "It's getting hard to even recognize if she is truly my niece because her personality constantly changes. I've asked her multiple times if she even recognizes me as her aunt, yet she never answers. She won't even give me a simple 'yes' or 'no'."
Mrs. Gotri leaned forward, her voice trembling with desperation. "Do you really think this is normal? You have to do something, Doctor. I can't bear to see her like this, even if she isn't my own daughter. Please."
The doctor finally stopped writing and looked up, meeting the older woman's desperate gaze. She placed both hands flat on the desk, completely unfazed by the emotional plea.
"Mrs. Gotri, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. It might look unusual to you, but this is quite normal. I see many patients exactly like her. It is simply an effect of social media—kids watch other people online and start to mimic them, thinking it's normal behavior. Just give it a few days. Have her take this medication for fifteen days, and come back if there is no change in her actions."
The doctor handed the slip of paper across the desk. "I assure you, this girl will be perfectly fine. You don't need to worry. She just needs someone present with her. I highly suggest you stay home and spend some quality time with her for the next few days."
Mrs. Gotri hesitated. She had a mountain of her own work that she couldn't afford to abandon. However, she had no other option. She had to help her niece. She simply couldn't bear to leave her like this.
Hearing the doctor's confident reassurance, the heavy tension in Mrs. Gotri's chest finally broke. She let out a long sigh of relief and nodded her head.
"You are right, Doctor. I'll do as you say. I will take leave from my work."
"Good. I appreciate that," the doctor replied.
CLUNK.
Mrs. Gotri pushed her heavy chair back and stood up. "Thank you, Doctor."
"You are most welcome. Come back whenever you need to."
Mrs. Gotri reached her hand out toward the silent, hollow girl. "Let's go, Lavanya."
Hearing her own name, a sudden spark ignited in the girl's vacant eyes. The anchor of her identity dropped back into place, filling the void the shadow constantly created. Lavanya lifted her head, the corners of her lips curling into a genuinely sweet, innocent smile. She reached out and warmly grabbed Mrs. Gotri's hand.
Startled by the abrupt, terrifyingly fast transition from a blank slate to a cheerful child, the aunt took a half-step back. Her free hand flew up to cover her slightly parted lips.
Completely unaware of her own jarring behavioral shift, Lavanya spoke with her normal, sweet voice. "Yes, Aunty."
She hopped down from her heavy chair. Seeing the genuine cuteness of her niece return, Mrs. Gotri's heart skipped a beat, her momentary fear melting away.
Mrs. Gotri and Lavanya left the clinic with smiles on their faces and returned home. Their residence was a sprawling two-story bungalow, wide and spacious enough for a family to live entirely comfortably. The moment they stepped through the front doors, Lavanya sprinted energetically into the house.
"Oh, she is energetic today. Hah..." Mrs. Gotri breathed, sitting heavily on the plush grey couch.
She had been deeply upset and anxious about Lavanya's unusual behavior for days. Her niece had always been a genuine tech prodigy, fiercely passionate about microchips, exposed wires, laptops, and circuitry. But recently, she had started behaving like completely different people.
She wasn't possessed by something malicious. Instead, it was as if she were a mirror. She would observe others and flawlessly mimic their actions, entirely unaware that she was doing it because she was just a child. The real tragedy wasn't the mimicking; it was that she was constantly forgetting herself. The core of her own identity kept slipping away, leaving her blank until someone or something reminded her of who she was.
She is like an actor who forgets she's playing a role, Mrs. Gotri thought, her lips parted in quiet sorrow.
She sat close to her husband, watching Lavanya and young Abhi playing on the floor, entirely absorbed in a messy scatter of toys, tangled wires, and silicon chips.
Her husband turned toward her, breaking her train of thought. "What was that? And what did the doctor actually say about Lavanya?"
"The reports came back perfectly normal," she replied, keeping her eyes fixed on Lavanya and her young son, Abhi.
Her husband turned his gaze back to the children as well, smiling softly.
"I already told you this, but you never believe me, dear. Don't worry so much. Our Lavanya will be perfectly fine."
"Hm." Mrs. Gotri didn't argue. She simply crossed her arms, leaning back on the couch as she continued to gaze at the two children playing.
An entire week passed by.
There was absolutely nothing unusual about Lavanya's behavior during that time. Slowly, Mrs. Gotri started to believe the doctor and her husband. She had initially harbored a terrible, sinking gut feeling that something was deeply wrong with her niece, but after spending every day closely monitoring her, her fears began to melt away.
Lavanya is alright. She is doing just fine.
Later that week, they visited the local children's park. While the other kids ran around the slides and swings, Lavanya sat entirely alone in the grass, completely absorbed in her usual assortment of tangled wires and silicon chips.
Not far away, another family was watching the playground.
"Yug, go play with the others!" Yug's mother, Prashila, spoke loudly, intentionally trying to push him toward the crowd.
Yug hadn't made a single friend at his school, nor did he have any desire to. To Prashila, her son had always been a quiet genius, possessing an intellect far beyond her understanding. She just wanted him to act like a normal child for once.
"Okay, Mom," Yug replied.
However, he didn't move toward the chaotic crowd of screaming children. His eyes were locked onto the solitary girl sitting in the grass with her electronics. He stared at Lavanya with intense, quiet curiosity.
Standing before her, Yug looked down. She was still completely absorbed in her task, meticulously twisting wires and silicon together, instinctively trying to build a piece of rudimentary nano-tech without fully realizing the impossible complexity of what she was doing.
"Hey! You. What are you doing?" Yug demanded, breaking her deep concentration.
Lavanya lifted her head innocently and looked at him intently. She took in his brown eyes, messy black hair, and pale skin—a genuinely cute face that was entirely offset by an unusually cold, intense stare. She froze for a moment, slightly intimidated, but she didn't back down.
"I'm making nano-tech that can assist me with everything," Lavanya replied without hesitation, holding her ground.
Yug paused, just staring at her. He hadn't expected an answer like that from a random girl in the dirt. For a brief second, his own innate, underlying genius felt challenged, making him inexplicably ashamed that he had underestimated her.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Who are you?" Lavanya repeated.
She blinked, her eyes widening slightly. The shift happened. The sudden interruption snapped the fragile thread of her current self. The television persona she had been quietly mimicking all morning vanished completely. Her mind went totally blank, and like an empty mirror, she immediately began to absorb Yug.
"I'm Yug," he answered, feeling a sharp spike of childish frustration. He was annoyed that she hadn't answered him, yet he felt strangely compelled to answer her mirrored question anyway.
"Now, tell me who you are." He clenched his small fists. He absolutely hated having to repeat himself.
"I'm Yug," Lavanya replied flatly.
She stood up from the grass, mirroring his posture perfectly, and stared right back at him with his exact, signature cold look.
"Yug, huh."
Yug actually believed her. It wasn't that he thought her real name was Yug, but he could see in her hollow eyes that she wasn't lying. He instinctively recognized her condition—her abnormality. He didn't fully comprehend the terrifying depth of it yet, but his innate intellect understood enough to know she wasn't simply mocking him.
"Fine. Let me help you with the nano-tech," he said, sitting back down.
Lavanya had assumed he would just walk away after her bizarre answer. Instead, he stubbornly persisted, giving the complex wires his full attention. Like a shadow, she blindly and seamlessly followed his lead.
"Yes!" she replied.
Deep down, beneath the shifting facades, she had always wanted a friend to play with. But her constant loss of identity meant she had always lacked the basic emotional foundation required to actually connect with other children.
After half an hour of working quietly together in the dirt, Yug stood up and brushed off his knees. He looked down and saw her staring up at him, her eyes filled with a desperate, quiet hope that he would stay. But in his mind, he had no reason to remain.
"You are more normal than I thought," Yug said. He paused, locking eyes with her one last time. "Well... you can be Yug, but you can't be me."
A violent shiver wracked Lavanya's small frame the exact moment those words left his mouth. As Yug turned and walked away, thick beads of cold sweat broke out across her pale face.
The blunt logic of his statement completely shattered her mirrored facade. It acted as a brutal trigger, violently dragging her suppressed, true identity back to the surface. The daze of her false reality broke all at once, blurring her vision. The terrifying void of her own mind rushed back in, too heavy for her child-like brain to process.
"Aunty!" she whispered desperately to the empty air.
Her eyes rolled back, and she instantly lost consciousness, collapsing into the tangled wires in the grass.