Evening arrived gently.

Not with a dramatic sunset or blazing skies — just a slow dimming of light that softened everything it touched.

The city shifted in that subtle way it always did between late afternoon and night. Offices exhaled their last workers. Streetlights blinked awake one by one. The air cooled just enough to make people pull jackets closer without thinking.

Amara noticed it from her balcony.

She hadn’t planned to step outside.

But sometime after entering her apartment, after setting her bag down and slipping off her shoes, she found herself drawn to the open door like instinct.

Now she stood there barefoot, arms loosely folded, watching the...