Danil straightened his back. He turned, and right before his eyes stood the ghost.
*Plop*
Toothpaste hit the sink. The shock lasted half a second, then something in him simply clicked back into place. He stared at her, taking in the details. Her body was mostly ethereal, edges bleeding like smoke, except for the bent part of her neck, which had a heavier, almost solid definition.
"…Let me finish getting fresh first."
The girl gave a slow nod and evaporated from the air. Danil rinsed his mouth. Cold water splashed against the porcelain, grounding him. The mint burned sharp on his tongue. He wiped his face with the towel hanging on the rack, definitely needed washing, but it did the job. The bathroom light flickered once and he took it as his cue.
Danil knew where she waited without having to think about it. He walked out to the small balcony. She hovered in the corner, faint against the concrete.
They stared at each other for a while.
"S-so, uh… what do you want?"
His voice came out awkward.
Nothing passed between them for a long moment. Danil felt the irritation rise. He was already tired of the slow, heavy pauses.
"…You used to be more… well, not like this", she said, eyes sliding from his head to his feet.
A vein jumped on Danil's forehead. His pupils flared. He clenched his fists, the old urge to swing flashing hot, but the rational part of his brain clamped down. He pulled in a deep breath.
"What is this? You decide to haunt me just for the amusement? Well, considering your own--"
He bit the rest off, letting the words hang with more bite than he meant.
Whether she caught the hostility or not, her face didn't change. She looked almost bored.
"Getting bold now, are we? You don't like me. I don't find you pleasant either. So if you want me gone, you do what I say."
"Yeah. That. What do you even want from me?"
For the first time she showed something real. A deep, loathing hatred rolled off her thick enough to press against the air.
"I want five people dead."
Danil let the words settle. The balcony felt smaller. The distant traffic noise thinned out.
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Five?", Danil pauses considering whether he would actually murder people for a moment. "All right, who?"
She floated a fraction closer. The bent angle of her neck made the movement look wrong, like a puppet with one string cut.
"Lurek Brandt first", she said.
Danil's mouth twisted. He knew Lurek too well. The bastard from school had always presented himself as respectable to teachers and anyone with authority, but Danil had seen the real side in the scuffles that never ended. Back when Danil was sixteen and thin enough to look frail, Lurek had set his sights on him, only to get humiliated when Danil fought back harder than expected. Since then they had clashed constantly. Now he ran with the lower-end crews, petty shakedowns and corner deals. The kind of failure who still acted like he owned the block. The memory tasted sour.
She continued without waiting. "Then Jordan Hale."
Danil's eyebrows lifted a fraction. Jordan Hale. The name sat in the public air like smog. Politics. The kind of guy who smiled for cameras and cut deals in back rooms. Danil had seen him on screens a few times with sharp suits and smoother words. Famous enough that even someone who didn't follow the news knew the face.
"Morgan Reed."
Corporate and high up. Danil had heard the name attached to boardrooms and quarterly reports that meant nothing to him except that she had money and power the way some people had breathing. She'd been in the papers for some merger or other last year. Another one who lived above the streets Danil walked.
Danil shifted his weight. "You're aiming high, not picking at random," he said, probing. "These aren't your run of the mill people. What's the thread?"
Her eyes narrowed. The air between them tightened.
"Next, Alex Rivera."
Danil frowned. The name rang a faint bell, but nothing loud. Just some guy. Normal life. Wife, kids, house on the quieter side of the city. Danil had heard a rumor once that Rivera had cleaned up his past, buried it deep under family photos and steady paychecks. Little more than that. He knew almost nothing solid.
She paused. The silence stretched longer this time.
Danil pressed. "And the last one?"
"Riley Kane."
The name landed flat. Danil searched his memory and came up empty. First time he'd ever heard it. No face, no story, no connection. Just a blank.
He leaned against the railing. "Riley Kane. Never heard of her."
The ghost's form flickered once, like static. She didn't answer right away.
Danil felt the tension coil. He wasn't about to let it sit. "Look, if I'm doing this, I need to know what I'm walking into. Why these five? Why Riley? Why me? And while we're at it, what the hell do I even call you? Ghost? Shadow? Or do you have a name like the rest of us?"
She stared at him. For a second he thought she might vanish again. Then her voice came out flat, almost reluctant.
"Mara."
The word dropped between them and she moved on as if it had never happened.
"Riley Kane is one of them. That's all you need right now."
Danil gave a short, humorless laugh. "Mara. Fine. Mara, you're holding cards like this is some game. You dragged me into this, whatever this is. Least you can do is stop treating me like I'm an errand boy."
Her head tilted at that unnatural angle. The hatred thickened again, but something else slid underneath it, defensive and sharp.
"You think you deserve explanations?" Her voice rasped lower. "I was the one hanging there. You saw the crowd, same as everyone else. This isn't about bargaining. Do what I need and I leave. That's the deal. You don't get the why until it's done."
Danil's jaw tightened. He could feel the old scuffle instincts waking up, but he kept his tone even.
"And if I say no?"
Mara's lips curved in a slow, unpleasant smile. The kind that didn't reach her eyes. It looked almost sadistic, like she was already picturing how the year would unfold if he refused.
"You won't. Because you already feel it. The thing I put inside you. It stays until the five are gone."
He didn't argue. The warmth in his chest was still there, steady and foreign. He hated how right she sounded.
Mara listed them again, almost like checking off marks on a wall only she could see. "Lurek Brandt, Jordan Hale, Morgan Reed, Alex Rivera and Riley Kane. Five people with five ends, and you carry them out."
Danil stared past her at the concrete blocks across the street. The sun had climbed higher; the air carried the usual city grit. Nothing looked different. Everything felt different.
He rubbed his sternum absently. "One year," he said, half to himself. "That's the window, right? You didn't say it, but I can feel the shape of it."
Mara drifted closer. The sadistic edge in her smile sharpened.
"One year," she confirmed, voice soft and pleased in a way that made his skin crawl."You finish all five in that time… and I'm gone. You fail even one and the thing inside your chest takes you instead. Slowly."
Danil's breath caught. The warmth in his chest flared hot for the first time, like a coal pressed against bone. Dread rolled in behind it, heavy and real, settling into the same place where the dream of the cliff had left him.