11:30 PM

11:30 PM

11:30 PM, 2 Feb - 2026

The bell rang at exactly 11:30 PM.

Meera did not look up. She never did anymore. The sound had long since stopped startling her. It was not a surprise. It was a certainty. The bell had carved itself into her nights — precise, mechanical, merciless.

The latch clicked. Cold mist slipped into the lobby first — thin, pale, searching. Then he stepped through it. Arjun Mehta.

Thirty-five. Always thirty-five. Brown jacket. Travel bag over one shoulder. The same careful half-smile!! Fifteen years, and he had not aged a day, she thought.

He shut the door gently and walked towards the front desk withering away small drops of midnight dew on his overcoat.

“Hi,” he said softly. “Is there a room available?”

“Yes,” Meera replied.

She met his eyes as she was handing him the keys

“Do you remember me?” she questioned.

He frowned.

“Do I know you?” He asked

And the night began, again!!

------------------

It had begun like this every night for fifteen years.

The bell. The mist. The question. The wait

In the initial years, he would laugh on hearing the question. His boyish charm kept her warm. Then the following few more years, he would pause, as if he started to remember — just long enough to forget, again. For this would give Meera a glimmer of hope to stir in her chest — only for the moment to slip away again. And he would forget to remember her. Almost like a script that would not break. Each night of every Month, continuing into years this would repeat only for him to never remember, and only for her to wait in eternity!

He would take the keys go up into his room. Few minutes after, She would hear loud noises from above, of some strong form of argument. She would hear a loud thud, as if something was smashed onto the wall and broken into pieces and then followed a long moment of silence. The air in the lobby would shift up suddenly, a faint scream growing louder and louder and then comes down crashing a body on the porch of the Hotel. The body, never seen but always heard, each night for 15 years long!!

11:29PM the watch would read!.

For the first few years she would cry uncontrollably when she heard the fall. Then years flew by her cries turned into silent whimpering. And now, tears would miserly roll down her cheeks. She sniffed her choked nose.

The clock then ticked.- 11:30 PM

The bell rings. The door swiftly opens. The cold mists again makes its way in and Arjun walks in with a warm boyish charm. Whole. Breathing. Unaware.

Her endless wait begins, again

And then, she always asked herself

“Why does he not remember me?”

---------------------------------

Then one night came, after 15 long years of tearful wait. The bell rung, the misty air entered inside along with a tall lanky frame of Arjun.

He walked down the lobby towards the front desk

“Hi,” he said softly. “Is there a room available?”

“Yes,” Meera replied.

He tugged of the midnight dew from his overcoat. Then their eyes met. He leaned slightly against the counter, studying her face with polite curiosity.

“This place feels familiar,” he murmured. “Have I been here before?”

This never happened before in fifteen long years. Hope rose up her spine, finding an expression of a gentle smile crossing her lips.

“Ro..Room 307” she murmured, still in a slight shock. Her extended hands over the counter holding the key to the room

Arjun signed the register. He always signed it. The handwriting never changed. The date had stopped mattering long ago.

“That number, 307, feels important,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

“You prefer it,” she answered. “Like always”

“Like always? What does that me….” He paused processing but yet he was not there fully.

“Never mind, been a long night” He smiled politely and took the key and headed towards the stairs.

He always paused at the third stair. Always ran his fingers along the railing. But tonight he said,

“Strange. I feel like I’ve been here.” and continued up towards his room

Meera knew, this was a different night. In every other loop, this was where she would retreat. Where the script would guide her back to her desk. She never followed him back to his room all these years, but tonight as if the body would not listen to her. She, like chains being pulled, followed him slowly towards his room.

-------------------

Room 307 felt smaller than he thought. Arjun set his bag down and walked toward the balcony doors. Fog pressed against the glass like breath against skin. He opened the door and stepped outside. He thought he would light a cigarette, but today his chest felt heavy and dismissed the idea like a midnight wind. The railing felt cool beneath his palm.

The heaviness he felt, slowly moved through him — not fear, not grief — something incomplete. A tension he could not name like an invisible elephant sitting on his chest..

He stepped back inside. He disliked that sensation. It felt like standing at the edge of something he should understand but couldn’t. A knock at the door, bought him back to his senses.

He opened it. Meera stood there.

“I wanted to check the heater,” she said.

“It’s fine.” Arjun retorted back almost immediately.

She remained in the doorway.

“Ah,,, anything else I can help you with, mam?” questioned Arjun.

“Do you remember me?”

He exhaled a faint laugh.

“You really want me to, right?. You know what, you seem familiar though, such a charming face. I would have definitely not forgotten you! Why do you keep asking me this again and…..”

He stopped mid-sentence. He knew this question was asked before way too, many times. He felt an odd jolt deep in his gut.

He studied her more closely.

“Do I know you?” his breaking voice echoing silently in the hallway.

The clock ticked softly behind him. 11:26 PM. She stepped closer.

“Do you really not remember me?” she whispered with a pause in every word

Those words really landed differently. The elephant on his chest started to dance. He did not answer immediately. Silence pressed against the walls. That silence had never happened before. And then—

A sound very faint yet familiar , from nowhere yet from everywhere filled the room behind Arjun.

The room shifted. The air warped. Time folded inward. And then he saw it.

“You can’t keep doing this to me!” screamed a younger looking Arjun pacing down the room holding the phone in his hand.

The older Arjun, near the door, froze looking back at his self, as if a memory playing out on projector.

“That’s me.” he whispered standing near the door, Meera making her way with the little gap on his right.

The call was on speaker, the women on the other end blasting back at the younger Arjun.

“If I die, it’s because of you.”. His ex-wife.

Young-Arjun stood near the bed, face pale and fractured with exhaustion he had mistaken for rage. Stress blanketting all over him

“You said you’d let me go!” Young-Arjun shouted. “You said it was over!”

Just then the sheets on the bed adjusted mildly and there lying down in her bare body, a younger Meera, totally hidden in the dark. She got up nervous, dressing herself in a haste and also gesturing Young Arjun to calm down and breathe.

“You cant keep punishing me like this” Young-Arjun whimperred. “ I gave you what you asked. You wanted half my wealth, I gave it, you asked me to forgive your affairs, I did it. You wanted the custody of my only son, I gave it. You wanted divorce, I gave it, five years ago, five god damn years now! I have always been giving forgetting that marriage is always about give and take. Why are you still bothering me”

“Don’t you dare think, you could ever get rid of me, If I die, it’s on you.” a cold voice on the other end reverberated in the dimly lit room. “Now you listen to me Arjun, you bloo….”

Before she could complete, Young Arjun in a fit of rage, threw the phone back on the wall , which made a huge thud and broke into pieces.

A long moment of Silence followed.

Older-Arjun staggered backward. In shock as if he had forgotten this memory even existed.

“No.” He gasped.

He saw his younger self walking towards the balcony. Slow. Measured. He knew what was to come.

Young Arjun standing there in balcony took a cigarette out, but almost instantly dismissed the idea of smoking it. He turned back and Looked at young Meera who by now had a tense look and was sitting on the very edge of the bed. There was something terrible and yet calm in his eyes.

“Meera” He broke the eery silence , “I will remember you forever”.

Meera smiled back.

“I know hon…..” but before she could complete

Young Arjun in a swift moment, leaned back. from the balcony submitting himself to gravity. A loud scream descended down the fall and ended in a crushing sound of body meeting the floor.

The echo of the fall lingered inside the room 307 long after the sound itself faded.

--------------------

Older-Arjun collapsed to his knees, tears rolling down non-stop.

Memory did not return gently.

It struck in waves — the phone call from his ex-wife, her threat of overdose. His failed marriage. How he lost his beloved son’s custody. They all came back. More memory flood in as he could now remember the night he first saw Meera at the receptionist desk. He could remember how he was love struck at first sight. How they spent five years meeting , caring , loving deeply only to jump it off from the balcony one fine night.

Oh my god I left Meera alone too!!!!

He had not slipped. He had not been pushed. He had stepped himself up the ledge.

He chose to end his life. It was his choice.

“I jumped,” he whispered. Crying unaccountably , voice breaking down “Like a coward”

Meera did not deny it. He looked at her fully now. Older. More grace, elegant. Her moist eyes carrying years of love and pain.

“How could I forget you? I forgot our love. I left you alone. It was so selfish of me to leave you alone.”

She closed her eyes briefly, centered herself and asked again:

“Do you remember me?”

His voice trembled. He broke, and through his tears he gasped

“Yes. Meera, I would never forget you. I will remember you forever”

His confrontation melted her. Tears finally broke down like a dam held on for decades. She dissolved herself onto his chest and cried and cried and cried.

The clock ticked. 11:29 PM.

Arjun realized that it is the last hour of his life which was being played in loop. In every other night, this was where he would see the fight, he would see young Meera, he would see himself walking up the ledge and jump down and the fall would reset the loop making him forget everything, but tonight, Arjun finally decided to remember, by forgiving his Younger Self, by forgiving the choice he made, by forgiving his incomplete life.. Tonight he was in her loving arms remembering her. He looked toward the balcony, but he did not move. He hugged his cowardice and incomplete life mentally. He finally freed his guilt, and let it go.

The memory was complete. The guilt acknowledged. The promise reclaimed.

He turned to her and asked her lovingly.

“Why didn’t you tell me? All these nights, for all these years, Why??”

“Because if you remembered” She sniffed her tears from her pink cheeks

“…then you would stop coming here every night.”

This confession hung between them

The clock shifted. 11:30 PM.

The bell rang downstairs. They both hurried towards the lobby. The door creaked open. Mist drifted inside. But no one entered.

Finally its over, Meera thought and gave a sigh of relief.

The loop did not reset. The air felt lighter. The lobby seemed warm.

Arjun exhaled slowly.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “For leaving. For forgetting. For making you wait. Selfishly. Forgive me Meera, If you could”

“I do, I do Arjun” She calmly reverted, her hands holding his

His outline began to soften. He understood. His time finally came. Not violently. Not dramatically. Just thinning, like breath dissolving in cold air.

He looked at her one last time. “I will never forget you Meera”

And then he was gone. like a speck of dust in thin air ---

Silence filled briefly.

What looked like a warm lobby was all of a sudden filled with stench of years of gathered moss. The rodents were the new denizens of the front desk squeaking through the dark. Dust lay thick across the counter. The receiver of the phone was hanging down the desk. Cobwebs gathered along the staircase railing. The bell was broken, lying lifeless on the floor next to the door and on the door was a wooden board hung crooked and written on it was :

CLOSED TO SERVICES SINCE 2011.

Meera stood alone in the center of the lobby staring at the door. She had died too, a couple of weeks after that dreadful night. Heart failure, the report said.

But she never left or rather she could not truly leave. Because he kept coming back every night, because he never could remember and she wanted to be remembered again . Their souls lingered for closure.

Now the clock above her stopped. 11:30 PM. Forever

She looked toward the doorway one final time and faded. away

The hotel, at last, was empty.

Complete and Still. Remembered through time