C23 A Brief Illusion

Arun woke to silence.

For a moment, he didn’t know where he was. The faint smell of mold, the creak of old wood, the pale morning light leaking through cracked blinds—it wasn’t his apartment. Not the gym. Not the bar.

Then memory returned. The rain. The alleys. Daisuke’s voice in the dark. The run. The broken door to this abandoned apartment.

He sat up slowly, every muscle aching