**Chapter 5: Lines Forgotten**
The theatre was dim, the overhead lights casting a muted glow on the velvet curtains. Tonight was Lucas Cain's first solo performance in front of a live audience—his debut piece, a dramatic monologue about loss and redemption. He had rehearsed it a hundred times over, but still, his heart pounded in anticipation.
Unbeknownst to him, among the audience sat a man with silver-streaked hair and a cane resting against his knee. His eyes glinted sharply under the shadows of his hat. He was known in certain underworld circles as Elric Vance—a trusted confidant and long-lost friend of the real Mr. Nobody, Alexander Cain.
And a few rows behind him, perfectly poised and immaculately dressed in black with a crimson handkerchief folded at the collar, sat Sebastian Mohram. His eyes were locked onto the stage, expression unreadable, but every muscle tense. He hadn't blinked since the curtain rose.
Lucas stepped onto the stage. A single spotlight fell upon him.
His performance began with slow, solemn pacing. The character—an unnamed man haunted by his past—spoke of mistakes, of people lost, of redemption denied.
> "I never wanted this life. I wanted to be free. To fly—not with wings, but with dreams. And when I fell... when I lost it all... I realized—"
Elric Vance leaned forward, breath catching. Those words—Alexander used to say them. Word for word. It was uncanny.
> "I realized that the past... isn't something you escape from. It's something you bury."
Sebastian's eyes widened. The same phrase. The exact same pause.
He remembered—
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**A Memory. Years Ago.**
A private lounge aboard a sleek black helicopter, slicing through the skies of Europe. Alexander Cain—Mr. Nobody—sipped absinthe while gazing at the clouds. Sebastian, as always, stood silently nearby.
"Sometimes, Seb... I wish I could be someone else. Just once. An actor, maybe. Not a boss. Just a face on a screen," Alexander had mused.
Sebastian blinked, surprised. "You? An actor?"
Alexander grinned. "Yeah. Why not? I think I'd be pretty good at pretending."
That was the last time he ever saw Alexander alive. Days later, the report came in. A fatal accident. The body was never found.
---
**Present.**
Back in the theatre, Lucas now stood tall on stage. His character was reaching the crescendo.
> "I'm not that man anymore. I've cast away my name, my past, my sins. Call me nothing. Call me... Nobody."
The entire theatre went silent.
Sebastian felt his heart drop.
Elric Vance clutched the armrest tightly.
The line hit them both like a freight train.
Sebastian's breathing turned ragged, but he remained still, masking it behind a professional facade. *"It's him... It has to be him... He's alive. He must be."*
Elric whispered to himself, "Alexander...?"
Lucas, of course, thought none of it. He believed he was just delivering well-written lines in a compelling role. The applause at the end thundered through the building, and he took his bows with modest pride.
As he exited backstage, he was greeted by Sebastian.
"Good work, Cain," the secretary said with utmost reverence.
"Thanks! Honestly, the audience was incredible. The director really gave me a role to dig into. The lines about forgetting the past? So deep, right?" Lucas grinned.
Sebastian didn't speak. He only nodded and walked beside him protectively.
Meanwhile, in the shadows outside the theatre, word was already spreading. The underworld's old scars were opening again.
"Mr. Nobody has returned. But he's changed. He's discarding the past. He's giving us all a warning."
Whispers turned into murmurs, murmurs into messages, and messages into plans. Enemies long dormant began to move. Old debts were recalled. Spies sent updates with shaking hands.
In their eyes, the most dangerous man in the criminal world hadn't just returned.
He had declared war on the past.
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