Areeba stood at the edge of the ruined town, the cold wind brushing against her skin. The once-haunted streets were silent now, only whispers of the past lingering in the air.
Beside her, Rehan watched as the last of the Smiling Man's curse burned away, reduced to nothing but ash.
They had done it.
The nightmare was over.
But the scars remained.
Areeba closed her eyes, remembering the faces of the lost girls—the ones who had never been found, the ones who had screamed in the night with no one to save them.
She whispered their names.
One by one.
For years, no one had spoken for them. Now, they would never be forgotten.
Rehan placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's time to go."
She nodded. But as they turned away, Areeba felt something shift in the wind.
Not fear. Not horror.
Something else.
A quiet peace.
The shadows had been hungry for too long.
Now, finally—they had been put to rest.
And in their place, a new dawn was rising.
A dawn of second chances.
Areeba inhaled deeply and smiled.
They had survived.
And sometimes, survival was the greatest victory of all.