CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1

Memories are born from the events our minds choose to preserve. Some fade within seconds, while others remain vivid even after decades have passed.

Slender fingers brushed lightly across an old photograph resting on a desk in the basement.

Pun Winnala couldn't sleep.

Less than an hour ago, he had awakened from a familiar dream. Unable to return to bed, he found himself wandering downstairs to the place where he had spent countless nights searching for answers that never seemed to come.

The long wooden table in the center of the room was covered with dozens of photographs. Newspaper clippings, computer printouts, handwritten notes, and stacks of documents lay scattered across its surface. Though different in appearance, every piece of information pointed toward the same mystery.

Pun had a reason for paying close attention to them.

The truth buried within his memories had remained out of reach for years, yet he had never forgotten it. Sometimes, those memories followed him into his dreams, dragging him awake in the middle of the night—just like today.

His light-brown eyes drifted away from the photograph as he rubbed his face with both hands.

He was exhausted.

He should have been resting before the start of a new day, yet he had been awake nearly two hours before his alarm was due to ring. No matter how hard he tried, sleep refused to return.

"Sigh..."

Even after staring at the information until his vision blurred, he found no answers.

Nothing.

No new clues.

No new leads.

Lately, it seemed as though whatever lurked within the shadows had noticed it was being watched and had chosen to remain hidden, waiting for everything to settle before emerging once more.

With nothing else to do and plenty of time before work, Pun allowed his gaze to wander around the basement.

The space was enormous, nearly the size of a small house. Every corner was packed with items he had collected over the years. Some were antiques, some were secondhand furniture, and others were objects he had bought intending to resell later.

Many of them had been forgotten.

One day, he had promised himself he would organize everything.

Perhaps that day had finally arrived.

Leaving the desk behind, Pun ventured deeper into the storage area.

Boxes and furniture were piled so high that they nearly blocked the narrow pathways between them. Though he sold dozens of items from his shop every day, the empty spaces were always filled by new inventory from the rear storage room rather than the older items buried in the basement.

CRASH!!

His foot caught on a carelessly placed object.

Pun stumbled forward, nearly falling as a thick cloud of dust exploded into the air.

"Cough—!"

Quickly lifting the hem of his favorite T-shirt to cover his nose, he waved away the dust before making his way toward the back of the room.

A click echoed through the basement as he flipped on the light switch.

The dim storage area brightened instantly, revealing rows of wooden furniture packed from floor to ceiling.

"I just need to make enough room to walk."

Pun rolled up his sleeves and grinned.

"Cheer up, Pun!"

Armed with cleaning supplies, he got to work.

Dust coated every surface, some layers nearly a centimeter thick. He brushed it away from old cabinets, tables, and chairs while checking whether each item was still worth keeping.

A sturdy wicker chair caught his attention.

After inspecting it, he quickly dragged it out from the back and set it aside to be moved upstairs later.

What had started as a simple cleanup was rapidly becoming a much bigger task.

The morning continued to slip away.

As Pun moved from one object to another, he realized just how many forgotten items had accumulated over the years.

There was no way he could sort through everything in a single day.

Still, he continued working, selecting only the items that caught his attention while his hands moved tirelessly from one task to the next.

Unaware that among the countless forgotten objects hidden within the basement, something important had been waiting for him all along.

With his foot, Pun nudged a flower pot out of the way before shifting several boxes aside to create enough space for a cabinet nearly as tall as himself. Bracing his feet against the floor, he pushed the heavy wooden furniture that blocked the path, slowly maneuvering it into an empty corner against the wall.

"Sigh..."

The sound of the clock echoed faintly through the basement, announcing that it was finally time to get ready for the day. At the same moment, Pun finished his improvised cleanup and leaned against the cabinet, breathing heavily as though he had spent the morning running laps around a park.

Using the back of his hand, he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Damp strands of hair clung to his skin as he lifted his head and surveyed the basement.

Compared to the chaotic mess it had been earlier, the room now looked considerably better. There was finally enough space to walk without tripping over piles of forgotten items.

A small smile appeared on his face.

"Very well done."

Pun gently patted himself on the head as a reward.

After admiring his hard work for a few moments, he made his way back toward the far side of the basement. One by one, he switched off the lights that had illuminated the storage area throughout the morning.

Darkness gradually reclaimed the room.

Only the lamp above his work desk remained lit.

The warm glow illuminated the scattered documents covering one side of the table. Pun gathered the papers together, making sure he hadn't forgotten anything important. After a final glance around the basement, he nodded to himself in satisfaction.

Everything could wait until later.

He climbed the stairs leading upstairs and reached for the final switch.

Click.

The last light disappeared.

Instantly, the basement became darker than the night itself.

Silence settled over the room.

The space remained completely still after its owner departed. No wind slipped through the walls. No floorboard creaked. No sound disturbed the darkness.

Everything appeared lifeless.

Yet deep within the bottom drawer of the work desk, hidden behind the narrow gap of aged wood, a faint crimson glow slowly emerged.

A thin line of red light shone through the darkness.

As if something hidden there had finally awakened.

Or perhaps...

It had been waiting all along.

PUN WINNALA

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