The mall’s fluorescent lights flickered one by one as the last of the evening staff clocked out. Kajal stood near the service elevator on the ground floor, phone in hand, waiting for the ride-share app to confirm her driver. The main doors had already been locked. She had lingered too long after the final store closed, browsing the last of the clearance racks, and now the vast corridors were empty except for the four night-shift security guards who moved toward her with deliberate steps.

Ramesh, the eldest of them, reached her first. His hand closed around her wrist before she could finish the call.