Shadows of You

The city of Lunaris had two faces: the glittering nightlife of the upper district and the cracked sidewalks of the industrial zone where secrets clung to the air like dust. Raven Hale, a young woman with a past she refused to remember, lived somewhere in between — in a cramped rooftop apartment overlooking the neon maze below.

Every night, the same dream haunted her.

A man in a black coat.
A rooftop.
Blood on her hands — but she didn’t know whose.

And a whisper:

“Find me before they do.”

She always woke with her pulse racing.

Raven worked nights at Arkana Lounge, a dim bar filled with actors, criminals, and people pretending to be both. She wasn’t a bartender by choice — she needed the money and, more importantly, the anonymity.

But the night everything changed, a stranger walked in.

He wasn’t like the others. He carried himself with quiet precision, like someone trained to watch before speaking. His dark hair fell slightly over his eyes, and his clothes were too sharp for someone visiting that part of town.

He sat at the bar.

“Whiskey,” he said. His voice was calm but carried an undercurrent of urgency.

Raven poured the drink. “Rough day?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he studied her with unsettling intensity, as if he were searching for something familiar in her face.

Finally, he said, “Do you know someone named… Ashen Vale?”

Raven’s stomach dropped.

The name pulsed like a forgotten scar.

“No,” she lied, too quickly.

The stranger nodded slowly, like he could see through her. “My name is Kael Draven. I’m looking for him. And I think you might be the only person who can help me.”

Before she could respond, a crash erupted on the other side of the bar. Two men in masks stormed in, guns raised.

People screamed. Bottles shattered. Kael moved before Raven even processed the danger, pulling her down behind the counter.

“Stay low,” he murmured.

“How do you—?”

A bullet grazed a shelf above her head.

Kael sprang up, tackled one of the masked men, and with terrifying efficiency, disarmed him. The second man lunged; Raven grabbed a bottle and swung it with a force she didn’t know she had. Glass exploded. He collapsed.

The bar fell silent except for Raven’s shaking breath.

Kael wiped blood from his cheek. “You fight like someone who’s been trained.”

Raven stared at him. “I’ve… never done that before.”

His expression tightened — not with disbelief, but with recognition.

“I’ve seen you fight before, Raven,” he said quietly. “You just don’t remember.”

Her skin prickled.

“How do you know my name?”

Kael hesitated, then said, “Because two years ago, you saved my life.”

Chapter 2 — Missing Pieces

Raven didn’t invite Kael in, yet he was standing in her apartment as if he belonged there. She wrapped her shaking hands around a cup of tea.

“Start talking,” she demanded.

Kael exhaled. “You and Ashen Vale worked together. You were undercover agents — both of you. You infiltrated a crime syndicate called The Meridian Circle. But something went wrong during your final mission.”

Raven’s head pounded.

“I’m not an agent,” she insisted. “I’m a bartender. I barely remember anything before the last eighteen months.”

“That’s because someone wiped your memory. Not erased — suppressed.”

“Why would anyone do that?”

Kael stepped closer. “Because Ashen Vale disappeared. And you were the last person seen with him.”

The dream. The rooftop. The blood.

Raven dropped the cup.

Kael knelt beside her, gently lifting her chin. “You are not the villain here. But Ashen believed the only way to protect you was to hide you — even from yourself.”

Raven whispered, “Why are you looking for him?”

“Because,” Kael said, “he left me a message. A single sentence.”

She held her breath.

“If Raven remembers, they’ll kill her.”

Chapter 3 — The Return of the Past

That night, neither of them slept.

Raven sat on the fire escape, watching the city lights flicker like dying stars. Kael leaned against the window frame behind her.

“You’re quiet,” he said.

“I’m processing the idea that my life might be a lie.”

He nodded. “I know what that feels like.”

“How?”

Kael hesitated, then confessed, “Ashen was my brother.”

Raven turned sharply.

Kael’s eyes glistened with a grief he had buried too deeply. “We weren’t related by blood. But he saved me from a street syndicate when I was a teenager. Trained me. Raised me. Everything I am — I owe to him.”

“And now you think he’s dead?”

Kael swallowed hard. “No. I think he’s alive. And hiding from the same people who came for you.”

Raven hugged her knees. “What if the reason I lost my memory is because I betrayed him?”

“You didn’t,” Kael said firmly. “Ashen trusted you. Enough to risk everything for you.”

Raven looked at him. “Why are you helping me now?”

He met her gaze, eyes dark and honest.
“Because you’re the key to finding him. And because Ashen made me swear to protect you… no matter what.”

The air between them shifted — fragile, electric, dangerous.

Raven whispered, “What if I’m not the same person he wanted you to protect?”

Kael stepped closer, his voice low.
“Then I’ll protect whoever you’ve become.”

Chapter 4 — The Photograph

Morning light crept into the apartment, pale and cold. Raven found Kael asleep on the floor, a worn leather notebook beside him. She opened it carefully.

Inside was a single photograph.

Three people standing on a rooftop.

Kael.
Ashen.
And her.

Her hair was shorter. Her eyes sharper. Her smile… confident. Like she owned the world.

On the back, written in Ashen’s handwriting:

“If she forgets, remind her who she was — not what she feared becoming.”

A sudden knock startled her.

Kael woke instantly, grabbing his weapon.

The door creaked open — and a tall man stepped inside.

Dark coat.
Cold eyes.
A scar across his jaw.

The man Raven had seen in her dreams.

He looked at her with devastating familiarity.

“Raven,” he whispered.

Her breath caught.

“Who are you?” she asked, voice trembling.

The man’s expression cracked — relief, sorrow, longing all flashing at once.

“My name,” he said softly, “is Ashen Vale.”

Kael froze.

Raven’s heart pounded.

Ashen took one step toward her.

“I came back,” he said. “For you.”

The room tightened around her like a closing fist. Raven stood frozen between two men — one who claimed to protect her, and one who claimed to know her soul.

Ashen Vale.
The name that chased her through nightmares.
The man whose voice whispered in her dreams.
The shadow she thought she had killed… or lost.

Kael stepped in front of her, gun raised.
“Ashen. How did you find us?”

Ashen lifted his hands slowly. His movements were careful, controlled. His calmness was unsettling — not the calm of someone unafraid, but of someone who had died once and didn’t mind if it happened again.

“Put the weapon down, Kael,” Ashen said. “If I wanted her dead, she would already be gone.”

Raven’s breath hitched.
The way he said “her” — filled with something heavy and unspoken — made her entire body react.

Kael didn’t lower the gun.
“You disappeared for two years. You left a trail of corpses. You left her. And now you walk in like nothing happened?”

Ashen’s eyes shifted to Raven.
Everything else fell away.

“Raven,” he whispered, voice raw, “you know me.”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t.”

“You do,” he insisted gently. “Your memories are buried, not gone. You’re still you.”

Raven swallowed hard, forcing her voice to steady.
“Then tell me something only I would know.”

Ashen exhaled shakily — the first sign of vulnerability he showed.
“You never drink your coffee hot. You say it ‘burns the truth off the taste.’ You read the last chapter of every book before the first. You hate when people touch your wrists. And… you loved rooftops because you said the city looked most honest from above.”

Her chest tightened painfully.

She didn’t remember any of it — but it felt true.

Kael lowered the gun slightly, torn.

Raven whispered, “Why did you leave me?”

Ashen’s jaw clenched, grief thinly veiled.
“I didn’t leave. I was taken.”

The statement hung heavy in the air.

“By who?” Kael demanded.

Ashen’s eyes hardened.
“The Meridian Circle. They wanted access to Project ECHO. They thought Raven had it.”

Raven blinked. “Project… what?”

Ashen looked at her with sorrow.
“They erased that from you too.”

Kael paced, frustration simmering. “Why come back now? Why reveal yourself?”

Ashen took a slow step forward.
“Because the Circle is coming for her again tonight.”

---

The Escape

Raven’s mind spiraled.

“Why would they want me?” she asked.

Ashen turned toward her fully. “Because you were the only one who cracked their encryption. You didn’t just infiltrate the Circle, Raven — you outsmarted them. You stole the truth from under their noses.”

Kael looked at her differently now — not as a fragile memory-wiped victim, but as someone once dangerous, brilliant, unstoppable.

Raven shook her head in disbelief.
“I don’t even know who I am.”

Ashen’s voice dropped lower.
“You were the bravest person I’d ever met. And the most reckless. You saved me more times than I deserve.”

His gaze flickered — longing buried under guilt.
“And I failed to save you.”

A sudden bang echoed from the hallway.

All three froze.

Kael moved to the window. “They found us.”

Raven felt her pulse spike. “Who?”

Ashen pulled a small device from his coat — a thin metallic strip glowing blue.
“The Circle. They must have tracked Kael.”

Kael tensed. “Tracked me? I swept for signals—”

“They upgraded their tech.” Ashen’s voice sharpened. “We need to leave. Now.”

Another bang. This time the door shuddered.

Kael looked at Raven.
“Out the fire escape. Go!”

Ashen grabbed Raven’s arm — not harshly, but firmly.

The moment he touched her, a flash ripped through her mind:

A rooftop.
A gun.
Ashen bleeding.
Her screaming.

She staggered.

Ashen’s eyes widened. “You remembered something.”

Not now. Not here.

The door splintered.

Kael shoved them toward the window and climbed out behind them.
The three of them descended the narrow fire escape as masked figures burst into the apartment.

Gunshots cracked. Metal sparked.

“Move!” Kael barked.

Raven’s legs shook, but instinct took over — an instinct she didn’t know she had.
She jumped the final ten feet, landing in a crouch. Ashen dropped beside her effortlessly. Kael landed harder, swearing under his breath.

“Alleyway, go!” Ashen ordered.

They sprinted through the dark, narrow corridors of Lunaris until Kael yanked them behind a dumpster.

Raven gasped for air. “Now what?”

Ashen looked at her with a pain that felt older than both their lives.
“Now I tell you the truth — all of it.”

---

Ashen’s Truth

They crouched in the shadows, breath fogging the cold night air.

Raven steadied herself. “Start talking.”

Ashen nodded. “Two years ago, you and I discovered The Meridian Circle was planning to erase an entire sector’s identities — wipe memories, rewrite lives, reset people like corrupted files.”

Raven’s skin prickled. “Why?”

Kael answered. “Because people without pasts are easier to control.”

Ashen continued, “You found the master algorithm — Project ECHO. You stole it. And the Circle wanted it back.”

Raven tried to take it in.
“So I lost my memory because… they took it?”

Ashen shook his head slowly.
“No. I did.”

Raven’s heart dropped.

“You WHAT?”

Ashen’s voice broke.
“They captured me. Tortured me. Used me to lure you. And when you came for me — like I knew you would — I realized they would do the same to you. Or worse. So I did the only thing I could.”

He looked at her with devastation.

“I wiped your memory myself. To save your life.”

Raven stared, trembling.

Kael looked stunned. “Ashen… why would you carry that alone?”

Ashen’s eyes never left hers.

“Because I loved her.”

The world tilted.

Raven’s throat tightened. “You don’t get to say that to the person you erased.”

“I know,” Ashen whispered. “But it’s the truth.”

Silence hung heavy between them.

Kael looked away, jaw clenching.

Finally, Raven whispered, “If you loved me… why come back now? Why risk everything?”

Ashen answered without hesitation:

“Because they found a way to restore your memories. And if they get to you before I do… they won’t just restore them. They’ll reshape them.”

Raven swallowed. “So what do we do?”

Ashen reached into his coat and pulled out a small data drive.

“We finish what you started. We destroy the Circle’s algorithm.”

Kael looked at Raven. “It’s your choice. We follow you.”

Raven stared at the two men — the one who cared because he was loyal, and the one who cared because he once loved her.

Her past was gone.
Her future uncertain.

But something inside her — something fierce — stirred again.

She stood, eyes burning with new resolve.

“Then let’s end this.”

Ashen smiled softly. “There she is.”

Kael rose beside her. “What now?”

Ashen answered:

“Now we go to the one place they never expected — the rooftop where everything began.”

Raven’s breath caught.

Her memories waited there.
Her truth waited there.
And so did the danger.

Kael and Ashen flanked her as they stepped out of the alley, heading toward the skyline.

Three shadows in a city full of lies.

And the night held its breath,
knowing something was coming.