Morning leaked through fractured skylights, dust turning light dull inside the abandoned mall, shuttered since the curfews. Concrete swallowed sound. Windows faced alleys, not streets. Safe enough.
Navir said softly. "So that's how you got there. The Wasteland."
Tarefin's back leaned against the pillar, head low, composed, hair reaching his napes. Bare chest visible beneath his white shirt. "It doesn't host the dead."
Samaveh nodded. "You said it watched."
"Yes," Tarefin replied. "Pressure, heat, wind. As if alignment mattered more than life."
Navir's brow lifted. "That sounds… supernatural."
Tarefin tilted his head up, blinking, genuinely puzzled. "I don't follow."
Samaveh smiled, turning to Tarefin, gently. "It's a genre in recent movies."
Turning to Navir, she said. "Tarefin here is a little old school."
Navir exhaled briefly.
"Why you?" He said turning to Tarefin.
"I asked the wrong questions," Tarefin said. "At school. At home. Everywhere."
"And now?" Ardavan asked.
Tarefin remained silent.
"You got answers, right?" Ardavan asked again.
Tarefin exhaled, keeping his head lowered.
"Yes. From the wasteland," he said.
Footsteps passed outside.
Everyone stilled. Dust drifted. Silence held.
Navir whispered, "If they see us?"
"They won't," Samaveh said. "Daylight hides more than night."
"What happens next?" Navir asked.
Tarefin closed his eyes. "First, your consciousness fades."
"Then you wander aimlessly." Tarefin said, raising his head abruptly, red eyes gleaming.
"How?" Navir asked.
"Your subconscious takes over," Tarefin added quietly. "Tested. The ground resists you. The air corrects you. Thought itself bends. If you don't align, the wasteland strips you down, memory first, then self."
Ardavan gasped.
__________________________
Ardavan sat with his back to the cracked storefront, knees drawn in. His voice stayed low.
"I was already gone," he said. "Drifting."
Navir didn't interrupt.
"You found me," Ardavan continued. "Kept talking. Saying my name like it still meant something."
Navir nodded once. "I repeated what you said before you vanished."
"You didn't let me drift," Ardavan said, lifting his eyes up. "You pulled me back."
"I reminded you of your past, and your dreams," Navir said quietly. "The ache in your hands."
"And her," Ardavan added. His jaw tightened. "You said her name."
Navir swallowed. "You came back."
"It hurt," Ardavan said. "But I remembered, then I came back."
Silence stretched.
Ardavan lifted his eyes. "You knew exactly what to say."
_______________________________
Navir stood apart from the others, fingers pressed to his temple as if pressure might force memory into shape.
"I remember," Navir said, eyes flashing, "we were being attacked," he said slowly.
Samaveh watched him.
Silent.
"A silhouette called out my name," Navir continued. "Then I heard a loud screech."
"You said we were attacked." Ardavan replied.
"Someone pulled us out." Navir said.
Ardavan frowned. "Who?"
Navir opened his mouth.
His brow creased. He searched again, deeper this time. The memory replayed cleanly until a precise point, then collapsed into absence.
"He had no face," he said. "No voice. Just… a gap."
Tarefin's posture shifted, subtle but alert.
Navir's breathing quickened. "He looked different from the others."
Samaveh stiffened. "You're sure?"
He swallowed.
"Someone erased themselves."