Coleman Manor Ruins – Midnight The hidden elevator descended into the earth with the grinding persistence of geological time, its reinforced steel cables singing hymns of tension as they carried Griffin and Eli deeper into the bowels of what had once been their childhood home. The shaft hadn't appeared on any of the architectural surveys conducted after the fire—it existed in the liminal space between official blueprints and nightmare reality, accessible only through a concealed entrance hidden beneath the ruins of Michael's wine cellar. Griffin and Eli stood back-to-back in the cramped elevator car, weapons drawn, their enhanced senses straining against the oppressive darkness that seemed to press in from all sides. The air tasted of recycled atmosphere and electrical ozone, processed through filtration systems that had been running autonomously for months despite the destruction above. That alone should have been impossible—the manor's power grid had been severed when the buildin
Coleman Manor Ruins – Midnight The hidden elevator descended into the earth with the grinding persistence of geological time, its reinforced steel cables singing hymns of tension as they carried Griffin and Eli deeper into the bowels of what had once been their childhood home. The shaft hadn't appeared on any of the architectural surveys conducted after the fire—it existed in the liminal space between official blueprints and nightmare reality, accessible only through a concealed entrance hidden beneath the ruins of Michael's wine cellar. Griffin and Eli stood back-to-back in the cramped elevator car, weapons drawn, their enhanced senses straining against the oppressive darkness that seemed to press in from all sides. The air tasted of recycled atmosphere and electrical ozone, processed through filtration systems that had been running autonomously for months despite the destruction above. That alone should have been impossible—the manor's power grid had been severed when the buildin
Island Stronghold – 72 Hours Later Griffin's nightmares had started the moment he'd closed his eyes in the medical bay, sixty-seven hours after Coleman Manor had become a smoking crater. What began as standard post-traumatic stress—images of fire and collapsing concrete—had evolved into something far more disturbing. Not nightmares of Michael—but dreams as Michael. He'd wake up with his hands around imaginary throats, his voice rasping orders in a cadence that wasn't his own. Commands issued with the casual cruelty of a man who had never seen other human beings as anything more than variables in an equation. "Liquidate the pension fund. Those teachers won't need retirement if they're not breathing." The words would spill from his lips before he fully understood what he was saying. The island stronghold—a repurposed oil platform in international waters that Maria had converted into their base of operations—offered the isolation Griffin needed to wrestle with what was happening to
Coleman Manor Ruins – Midnight The hidden elevator descended into the earth with the grinding persistence of geological time, its reinforced steel cables singing hymns of tension as they carried Griffin and Eli deeper into the bowels of what had once been their childhood home. The shaft hadn't appeared on any of the architectural surveys conducted after the fire—it existed in the liminal space between official blueprints and nightmare reality, accessible only through a concealed entrance hidden beneath the ruins of Michael's wine cellar. Griffin and Eli stood back-to-back in the cramped elevator car, weapons drawn, their enhanced senses straining against the oppressive darkness that seemed to press in from all sides. The air tasted of recycled atmosphere and electrical ozone, processed through filtration systems that had been running autonomously for months despite the destruction above. That alone should have been impossible—the manor's power grid had been severed when the buildin
Coleman Manor Ruins – Midnight The hidden elevator descended into the earth with the grinding persistence of geological time, its reinforced steel cables singing hymns of tension as they carried Griffin and Eli deeper into the bowels of what had once been their childhood home. The shaft hadn't appeared on any of the architectural surveys conducted after the fire—it existed in the liminal space between official blueprints and nightmare reality, accessible only through a concealed entrance hidden beneath the ruins of Michael's wine cellar. Griffin and Eli stood back-to-back in the cramped elevator car, weapons drawn, their enhanced senses straining against the oppressive darkness that seemed to press in from all sides. The air tasted of recycled atmosphere and electrical ozone, processed through filtration systems that had been running autonomously for months despite the destruction above. That alone should have been impossible—the manor's power grid had been severed when the buildin
Coleman Manor Ruins – Midnight The hidden elevator descended into the earth with the grinding persistence of geological time, its reinforced steel cables singing hymns of tension as they carried Griffin and Eli deeper into the bowels of what had once been their childhood home. The shaft hadn't appeared on any of the architectural surveys conducted after the fire—it existed in the liminal space between official blueprints and nightmare reality, accessible only through a concealed entrance hidden beneath the ruins of Michael's wine cellar. Griffin and Eli stood back-to-back in the cramped elevator car, weapons drawn, their enhanced senses straining against the oppressive darkness that seemed to press in from all sides. The air tasted of recycled atmosphere and electrical ozone, processed through filtration systems that had been running autonomously for months despite the destruction above. That alone should have been impossible—the manor's power grid had been severed when the buildin