Chapter Seventy- Four

Ryan woke up with a throbbing headache, his stomach churning like a washing machine.

He felt groggy and disoriented, his mind a jumbled mess of fuzzy memories and nagging doubts.

As he tried to piece together the events of the previous night, a sense of dread washed over him.

He remembered spending the evening with Jessica, his old flame.

They had reconnected after being apart, and he had been pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to fall back into their old rhythm.

They had laughed, reminisced, and shared stories about their lives.

But as the night wore on, he had started to feel strange. His head had throbbed, his vision was blurred, and his coordination had become impaired.

He had attributed it to too much alcohol, but now, as he lay in bed, he couldn't shake the feeling that something else had been at play.

He reached for his wrist, where his mystical watch usually sat, but it was gone.

A wave of panic washed over him. The watch had been passed down through his family for