Episode 04:
The knock never came again that night.
But Alok didn't sleep.
Every creak of the building, every whisper of rain against the window felt like it could be him the man in black from the bus.
By morning, the world had returned to its dull routine. The factory floor clanged and rattled as always, drowning in the smell of grease and metal. Alok tried to work without thinking, without remembering. But every time he lifted a part from the conveyor, he saw that still figure on the bus.
During his lunch break, he sat on the fire escape with a paper cup of instant noodles. Across the street, between the crowd of pedestrians, he saw the coat.
Black.
Hood up.
Standing still while everyone else moved.
The steam from his noodles fogged his vision, and when he blinked the figure was gone.
That evening, Mina waited for him outside their apartment building, an umbrella barely shielding her from the drizzle.
"You're late again. Did you get into trouble?"
"No," Alok said, forcing a smile. "Just… work."
She narrowed her eyes. Mina was young, but she had a sharpness that made it hard to hide things from her.
"You've been acting weird lately. Is something going on?"
Alok wanted to tell her about the bus, the man in black, the pendant's strange coldness. But what would he even say? That he thought he was being followed by a shadow?
That night, as he lay in bed, he turned the pendant over and over. His thumb brushed across its surface, and for the first time in days, it pulsed faintly.
A whisper brushed his mind too soft to make out.
Alok froze.
Then, somewhere far below the apartment floor, he heard the sound of footsteps.
Slow. Measured. Coming closer.
And then… silence.
We could stretch this tension for many more episodes, revealing little pieces at a time even letting Alok's work life, his sister, and maybe a romantic subplot weave together with the mystery of the man in black.