The mansion breached
At 3:41 a.m., the alarm tore through the mansion like a living thing.
It was not the muted chime reserved for minor perimeter shifts or harmless system errors. This was the complete breach alarm—deep, resonant, relentless. The kind of sound designed to reach bone and instinct, to announce that something irrevocable had already gone wrong. It reverberated through marble halls and vaulted ceilings, vibrating through walls thick enough to withstand storms but not panic.
The lights flickered once, twice.
Emilia woke with a violent gasp, her body jolting upright before her mind could fully catch up. For a heartbeat, she didn’t know where she was or why her chest felt like it was collapsing inward. Then the hallway outside her bedroom erupted in red. Emergency strips ig
