The second copy

 I am a Xerox shop owner in Palladam. My shop is near the college. Daily job is simple - printouts, assignments, ID cards. One night at 9:15 PM, just as I was about to close, a girl came in, fully drenched in rain. No bag, no umbrella. Just a single paper in her hand, shivering. "Anna, one Xerox please." I took the paper. It was a handwritten letter. _If you are reading this, I am already dead. He will kill me tonight. My name is Nila. My boyfriend, Karthik, from final year CSE. Please give this to the police._ I froze. I looked at the girl. She was staring at me, expressionless. "Who is Karthik?" I asked. She said, "Print it quickly." My hands were shaking. I placed the paper on the machine and pressed COPY. The machine made a noise, but the light didn't move. The paper came out blank. I tried again. Blank. Third time. Blank. The original paper was there, clear ink, but the Xerox was always blank white. I said, "Machine... machine problem, ma." She leaned forward and whispered, "Then the truth doesn't want to be copied. It wants to be remembered." She left the original letter on the counter and walked out into the rain. I ran behind her to the road. No one was there. The street was empty. I was terrified. I locked the shop and took the letter to the police station next street. The constable laughed. "Nila? CSE final year? Sir, Nila died yesterday. Boyfriend Karthik confessed. He strangled her at 9 PM last night in her hostel room. We arrested him this morning." My blood went cold. I looked at the time on the wall. 9:20 PM. I looked down at the letter in my hand. The ink was now slowly disappearing. In 10 seconds, the paper turned blank white in front of both of us. The constable stared at me. "Where did you get this paper?" I had no answer. I still have that blank paper in my drawer. And my Xerox machine has never failed to copy since that night. Except once - when I tried to Xerox that blank paper again. On the copy, in faint letters, it said: _THANK YOU._ *