Beauty in the darkness by Tahbeer Khan

About this novel

Beauty in the Darkness by Tahbeer Khan is a mysterious Urdu romance about a woman returning to her childhood home. After many years away she is unaware that someone is watching her from the shadows, and the house holds secrets of its own.

As evening falls and rain clouds gather, Asal walks up the quiet lane with her friend Katie. Katie is nervous: the place is so deserted that she suggests they go back to the hostel. But Asal can’t be stopped. Twelve years ago she lived in this house with her parents, happy and carefree, and she has waited eight long years for the chance to come back. She laughs at Katie and says she isn’t like other girls who scare easily. As she runs towards the house, she has the strange feeling that someone is looking at her. She turns to the left, but there is nobody there, only the leaves of the trees moving in the wind.

بارہ سال بعد پرانا گھر، اندھیرا — اور درختوں کے پیچھے سے دیکھتی نظریں۔

Inside, the house is thick with dust, because the caretaker who usually cleaned every month hasn’t come this time. Asal and Katie roll up their sleeves and clean until eight at night, and the old house finally starts to feel like home again. Hungry, Asal suggests walking to a restaurant nearby, but Katie refuses to go out in the dark in such a lonely area. Asal teases her for being so scared, pulls on her long black coat and steps outside alone. The street is silent, with only one dim light glowing on a bungalow opposite, and it’s only eight o’clock.

Tahbeer Khan, whose vampire stories are popular on this site, builds atmosphere slowly here: an empty house, a dark street and a feeling of being watched. The title suggests that something beautiful, and perhaps dangerous, is waiting in that darkness.

You can read Beauty in the Darkness online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by Tahbeer Khan: The Vampire Aaron, The Vampire Aaron Part 2 and The Vampire Adyan Part 3, or see all Tahbeer Khan novels.