I had only meant to visit Japan for a few weeks—temples, neon streets, late-night ramen. But one evening, while walking through an old alley near Shibuya, a flash of light pulled me under. When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t me anymore. I was in a woman’s body, standing in a luxury apartment overlooking the skyline, wearing silk that wasn’t mine. A phone buzzed with messages from someone calling me his love. I realized with a jolt that I was inside the life of a mistress who must have wanted to vanish… and somehow I had taken her place.

Every corner of that apartment whispered her secrets—perfume bottles lined like trophies, letters never sent, and a passport hidden in a drawer. Whoever she was, she’d left behind more than clothes; she’d left her burdens too. As I looked into the mirror, her reflection meeting mine, I wondered if she had escaped through me, trading her entrapment for my freedom. Now it was my turn to live her unfinished story—and find a way out before the man behind those messages came knocking.

And he did come knocking, groping, massaging me