They were five feet from the service door, a rectangle of mundane grey in the gilded corridor. Five feet from the clattering kitchens, the loading bay, the linen van, and escape. The air was already changing, the opulent perfume of the ballroom giving way to the smell of grease and steam.Sabe’s hand was a firm, guiding pressure on Anton’s back, his body a live wire of tension. Anton focused on the door, on the promise of the ordinary world beyond it. He could almost feel the cool night air on his face.Then, the world ended.It didn’t fade. It was severed. One moment, the corridor was bathed in the warm, golden glow of recessed lighting. The next, it was plunged into an absolute, suffocating blackness. The hum of the air conditioning, the distant music, the ambient electronic buzz of a modern building—it all vanished, replaced by a silence so profound it felt like a physical blow.For a heartbeat, there was only the shocking void. Then, the human reaction erupted. From the ballroom,
Last Updated : 2025-11-01 Read more