The Path-of-No Return

Ash Mercier has always been good at understanding people what they want, what they fear, what makes them tick. It’s not magic. Just observation, pattern recognition, a skill sharpened over years of watching the world with cold, detached clarity.



He thought he had life figured out. Until one night, something shifts.



It starts small. A street that feels too quiet. A flickering light that shouldn’t matter. A strange feeling he can’t shake. Coincidence. Imagination. That’s what he tells himself.



But the moments keep piling up. The city around him feels… wrong. The people, the places things he’s known his whole life suddenly feel unfamiliar, like a script he’s no longer following.



Ash has spent his life reading people apart, staying in control, always one step ahead. But now, for the first time, he’s starting to wonder has he ever truly been in control at all?