As the night deepened, an eerie silence settled between Luna and Arian. Inside the university's oldest building—where the original Moonlight Experiment had taken place—lay a hidden underground research facility known only to a few: the Time Lab.
Arian finally broke the silence. "The moment I first saw you, I knew... you weren't from this timeline."
Luna froze. "What do you mean? I was born here, grew up here in Dhaka."
Arian shook his head slowly. "No. You came from a parallel timeline. The night of the experiment, a rift in time opened up. You slipped through it."
Luna felt dizzy. "How do you know all this?"
Arian stepped forward and powered up an old console inside the lab. A screen lit up. It displayed archived footage from the night of the experiment. A girl emerged from a glowing rift—her face clearly visible. It was Luna. But the date stamped on the footage read 2022.
"That means... I came here three years ago?" Luna whispered in disbelief.
"Yes," Arian said. "And now you're trapped. You have to go back. This timeline is rejecting you. That's why your memories are fading, why you're growing weaker."
Tears welled up in Luna's eyes. "But I've fallen in love with you, Arian. I don't want to go back to a life I don't remember."
Arian looked pained. "If you stay, the balance between timelines will collapse. Our world could be destroyed."
Suddenly, a strange sound echoed from a corner of the lab wall. Footsteps. Someone—or something—was emerging from the shadows.
Arian's face turned pale. "They've found u
s. We're out of time."