The knock echoed again, deeper now, like a pulse thrumming against the brittle walls of her mind.

Luna’s breath hitched, each inhale sharper than the last—as if the air had turned to shards, slicing through her lungs.

Marek’s eyes never flickered from hers. His smile was thin, merciless, a blade pressed to skin. “You’ve got a choice. Listen to me, or drown in silence.”

Her fingers trembled, tracing invisible patterns on the cold wooden table. The room felt suddenly smaller, the shadows crawling like dark fingers across peeling wallpaper.

“Who... who is Malik?” Her voice was a brittle whisper, cracking under weight she couldn't yet name.

Marek leaned forward, voice dropping to a venomous whisper. “Corvin. He’s the whisper beneath the city’s roar—the rot in its bones. Kingpin, puppet master, nightmare you’re too blind to see.”

Rain spat against the grimy windowpane, a drumbeat pounding in sync with her racing heart. Outside, the neon signs flickered erratically, struggling through the storm—like the fractured fragments of her mind.

“What does he want with me?”

A bitter laugh spilled from Marek’s throat, dark and ragged. “More than you know. He’s got his hands deep in every shadow you’re running from. Corvin’s the reason your memories are buried beneath a tomb of lies.”

Luna’s gaze dropped to her hands. Trembling fingers now stained with the ink of confusion and fear.

“Why me? Why erase me?”

Marek’s eyes gleamed with a savage satisfaction. “Because you’re the one thread that could unravel his whole empire.”

The room stretched taut, silence swelling like a storm waiting to break.

A sudden buzz shattered the tension—her phone lighting up with a message. The screen glowed in the dark like a beacon from a different world.

“You keep digging, Luna, and the shadows will swallow more than just your past.”

No number. No sender. Just those words, dripping with cold menace.

She swallowed hard, a scream caught in her throat.

“Malik,” Marek said with a dark grin. “He’s closer than you think.”

The rain outside intensified, slashing at the glass. Neon lights flickered again, casting long distortions across her face—fractured reflections of a woman caught between darkness and the desperate hope of forgotten truth.

Unseen eyes watched from the shadows.

And the silence waited for her answer.