Great! Here's the **epilogue to "Knife in the Heart II"**, psychological, dramatic, leaving room for a third volume.--

# 🩸 **EPILOGUE — RETURN TO THE CITY**

The city greeted Alice with silence.

Not the usual silence of night, but the silence after the catastrophe, the silence after something people couldn't yet name.

The streets were empty, the streetlights casting long, pale shadows.

The puddles filled with the reflections of stars, but none of them moved unnaturally.

Alice walked slowly, feeling a bit of her strength regained with each step.

The knife was still in her pocket—cold now, dead, powerless.

No longer needed.

Her heart beat steadily.

For the first time in years, she felt whole.

But her thoughts were heavy.

She knew that the people who had disappeared had been freed… or not.

She wasn't sure if everyone had returned.

She didn't know who remained on the other side.

Had the Whisperer truly been destroyed, or just trapped in shadow?

Alice stopped at one of the houses—a familiar apartment building.

The door was slightly ajar.

She felt a cold draft of air.

She didn't move.

She wasn't afraid.

"Who's there?" she whispered.

Silence answered her.

She hadn't expected anything else.

But in the reflection of the puddle, she saw brief glimpses:

people disappearing into the forests and returning directly to the cities, silently, unnoticed.

The reflections—not reflections, but fragments of real souls—were slowly returning to the world of the living.

Alice smiled.

Not with joy, but with relief.

For years, she had been afraid of her reflections, her shadow, everything that was hers and that she couldn't control.

Now she knew she could live **fully**.

She looked toward the forest where it all began.

She saw a glimpse of her younger self—the girl who had once been a fragment of her soul.

She smiled faintly and nodded.

The girl returned the gesture and walked away into the darkness.

Alice sighed.

The city might be returning to normal, but she knew not everything was the same.

In a world where mirrors could live and shadows could scream, peace was fleeting.

But for now—**her heart was whole**.

And that was enough.

She stood, dusted her hands, turned, and headed toward the city.

The streetlights reflected in the puddles, and her own reflection was finally her friend, not her enemy.

And with that peace—still uncertain, but true—she entered her new reality.

---

If you want, I can now write a **bonus chapter zero for Knife in the Heart III**, which introduces a new threat, new twists, and builds tension for the third volume.

Would you like me to write it?