Smoke curled above rooftops. Sirens wailed in the distance. Every street corner carried tension like a fuse waiting to catch fire.
Elara walked alone through the night.
She had told Khalid she needed to clear her head, but the truth sat in her pocket—the note signed with Halima's name.
The old bridge loomed ahead. Rusted steel. Graffiti that screamed rebellion. It had been abandoned years ago when the new bypass was built. Now it stood like a skeleton, forgotten but watching.
The river beneath churned, black and heavy.
Elara tightened her scarf and stepped into the shadows.
A figure stood near the center of the bridge.
Thin. Wrapped in a hood.
Elara's breath caught.
"Halima?"
The figure turned. The hood slipped back just enough for the dim light to reveal her face.
It was Halima. Alive.
But not the Halima Elara remembered.
Her skin was pale, her eyes hollow, ringed with sleepless shadows. Her lips trembled as if words had to claw their way out.
"Elara," she whispered. Her voice cracked. "You came."
Elara moved closer, but slowly.
"What happened to you?"
Halima flinched at the question, her arms wrapping around herself like she was trying to keep her body from falling apart.
"They took me," she said. "They broke me down. They filled me with pills, with lies, until I did not know who I was anymore. I was a test, Elara. A test to see how much silence a mind could hold before it shattered."
Her words shook with madness and clarity all at once.
Elara swallowed. "Who did this to you?"
Halima's eyes darted to the shadows around the bridge. "The Council. Your father. They wanted me erased. Not just dead—erased. I was the first, but not the only. There are others, hidden in places you cannot imagine."
Elara's chest tightened. She reached out a hand. "Come with me. We can protect you."
But Halima stepped back. "No. If I go with you, they will find me again. They are already watching."
Elara froze. "Then why call me here?"
Halima's lips trembled. She slipped something from her sleeve and pressed it into Elara's hand.
A small flash drive.
Her voice was barely audible. "It is the map. The network of their safe houses, their prisons, their laboratories. Everything they use to keep the Silence alive."
Before Elara could respond, a sound split the night.
Engines. Headlights flaring.
Black SUVs roared onto the bridge from both sides, trapping them in the center.
Halima's face twisted with panic. "I told you—they were watching."
Doors slammed. Men in dark suits stepped out, weapons raised.
And from the lead car, Ibrahim Bello emerged.
Calm. Smiling. The storm in his eyes hidden beneath charm.
"Elara," he said, his voice carrying like a sermon. "And my lost little Halima. How touching. Did you really think I would let ghosts walk free?"
Elara's pulse pounded. She shoved the flash drive into her pocket, her body instinctively shifting between her father and Halima.
"This ends tonight," she said, her voice shaking but strong.
Her father chuckled softly. "No, daughter. Tonight is only the beginning."
The guards stepped forward. Guns gleamed in the cold light.
Halima whispered, "Run."
But Elara stood her ground. Her hand brushed the edge of the railing. Below, the river roared like a grave waiting to swallow.
Her father tilted his head, eyes narrowing on her. "You cannot save her. You cannot save anyone. You were born to fail, Elara. That is the truth you will never escape."
For a moment, time fractured.
The roar of the river.
The tightening of the guards' grips.
Halima's trembling breath.
Elara made her choice.
She grabbed Halima's wrist and pulled her toward the railing.
Her father's voice thundered across the bridge. "Do not—"
But it was too late.
Elara leapt.
The world spun. The icy river closed over her head like a coffin.
Darkness. Silence. Weight.
She surfaced, gasping, dragging Halima beside her. The current tore at them, sweeping them downriver, away from the bridge, away from the guns.
Above, shouts echoed. Lights flared.
But the river swallowed them whole.
Hours later, Elara pulled herself onto the muddy bank. Her body ached, her lungs burned, but the flash drive was still clenched in her fist.
Halima lay beside her, coughing, alive but broken.
Elara stared at the night sky. The stars blurred.
Her father's voice still rang in her ears. You were born to fail.
She whispered to herself, her voice raw.
"Then I will prove him wrong."