EPISODE 3 Blackout
1196 Words
The lights didn’t just flicker.
They died. All at once.
Keisha froze in the hallway, her phone shaking in her hand, her other palm braced flat against the wall, like her body needed something solid to believe in. For a moment, it was like the building exhaled a breath held too long.
Then the shouting started.
Someone knocked over a table. Glass shattered. A scream rang out, sharp and high. Then
Silence.
Not the safe kind. The wrong kind. The kind before something shatters completely.
Keisha’s heart thundered. Her vision tunneled as her body screamed: run.
But she didn’t.
She turned on her flashlight. The beam trembled in her hands as it swept the empty hallway. Shadows leaned in like they were listening. The resort her home had never felt so unfamiliar.
Her phone still had a charge. No signal. Not even emergency calls.
Of course.
She took a breath. Shaky. Shallow. Then another step. Then two.
She moved toward the stairs, every footfall ghost-quiet. The wooden boards beneath her feet felt too loud, like the walls would memorize where she’d been.
Downstairs, chaos swirled in the dark.
Guests muttered in confusion. Staff scrambled. Someone was crying. A man she barely recognized was holding a towel to his bleeding lip, as casually as if he were checking a watch.
Keisha felt like she’d walked into someone else’s story. A nightmare she hadn’t been warned about.
“Keisha!” a voice hissed.
She turned sharply, flashlight swinging.
It was Sofia.
Her normally poised face was tight, eyes wide. She grabbed Keisha by the wrist.
“We need to get upstairs. Now.”
“What’s going on?” Keisha asked, her voice too thin, too high.
Sofia didn’t answer. I just pulled her into the stairwell.
“I told Giovanni we needed more security,” she muttered, her voice low and clipped. “But he thought he could keep things low-key.”
Her grip was stronger than expected, not elegant, but urgent. Keisha’s legs struggled to keep up.
They reached the second floor. The hallway stretched ahead, long and quiet.
Then Sofia stopped.
A man was standing in the dark.
Still. Tall. Watching them.
“Who’s that?” Keisha whispered, instinctively stepping closer to Sofia.
But Sofia was already moving forward.
“Nico.”
The name landed like a c***k of thunder.
Keisha didn’t know what she’d expected from the man who haunted whispers and carried Sofia’s fear like a cloak, but it wasn’t that.
He smiled. Slow. Too smooth.
“What are you doing here?” Sofia snapped.
“I heard there was a blackout,” he said easily. “Thought I’d check on the birthday boy’s favorite sister.”
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I go where I want.”
He said it like true truth. Not arrogance. Fact.
Then his gaze slid towards Keisha.
And something in her spine went cold.
“You must be a girl.”
She didn’t respond. Couldn’t.
Nico chuckled. “You look surprised. Like you didn’t know someone was coming for you eventually.”
Sofia stepped between them. “You don’t talk to her.”
Nico’s expression didn’t shift. “Relax. She’s still useful.”
Useful.
Keisha’s stomach dropped. Her hands curled into fists she didn’t remember making.
“I don’t like being left out of the plan,” Nico said, glancing at Sofia. “Makes me nervous.”
“You don’t get to be nervous,” Sofia said. “You’re not in charge.”
“Yet.”
That word stuck in the air like a loaded gun.
Then he walked past them, slowly and deliberately. Keisha stepped back to avoid brushing him. His scent of smoke and spice lingered like oil on her skin.
When he disappeared around the corner, her knees nearly gave out.
Sofia didn’t speak. She just took her hand again and pulled her down another hallway.
Back in her suite, Keisha slammed the door shut, flipped the lock, bolted it. She backed onto the wall, her heart pounding like it wanted out of her chest.
Useful.
She’s still useful.
She couldn’t get the words out of her head.
Later, after the power returned and the guests went to bed pretending it had all been a glitch, Keisha couldn’t sleep. Again.
This time, it wasn’t just fear. It was anger. A slow, rising fire beneath her ribs.
They were talking about her. Planning around her. And Giovanni?
He was nowhere to be found.
Had he known Nico was coming?
Had he let it happen?
She didn’t knock.
She went straight to his suite and pounded on the door.
When it opened, he looked the same as ever. Calm. Composed. But there was something behind his eyes, something heavy.
“Keisha.”
“Your friend Nico was here,” she said, skipping the pleasantries. He called me useful. Told me to stop snooping.
Giovanni didn’t move. But his jaw tightened.
“I need to know what’s going on,” she pushed. You keep telling me to stay out of it, but I’m already in it. Someone was talking about me last night. Planning something. And now Nico’s showing up in hallways during blackouts like he owns the place.
He still said nothing.
She stepped closer. “Say something, Giovanni.”
Finally, his voice came. Quiet. Sharp. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
“That’s the only thing you’ve got to say?”
“No,” he said. “But it’s the only part you’re ready for.”
She gave a bitter laugh. “Try me.”
He didn’t argue. Didn’t soothe. He just turned and walked deeper into the room, leaving the door open behind him.
She followed.
His suite was sterile. Cold. Clean. A laptop. A gun. A bottle of scotch. No clutter. No photos.
Like a life that could disappear in minutes.
“You think I brought you here by accident?” he asked.
“I think your sister booked my resort,” Keisha snapped. “And I was just in the background.”
“No,” Giovanni said. “You were the target.”
Her stomach dropped.
“She recognized your last name. Wright.”
“My father”
“Wasn’t just some hotel guy,” Giovanni said. Your family is used to moving products. Quiet. Smart. Until someone turned on them.”
Keisha stumbled back a step. “No. That’s not”
“It’s buried,” he said. But not forgotten. Some people think you might be holding something. A location. A ledger. A piece of the past.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“I believe you.” He looked at her. And for once, there was no wall between them. “But Nico doesn’t.”
Keisha sat down before her legs gave out.
So that was it.
This was why they came.
Not for a birthday.
For her.
“You should’ve told me,” she whispered.
“You wouldn’t have believed me.”
“You’re right.”
A long silence passed.
Then Giovanni said, “But now you believe him, don’t you? Nico.”
She nodded.
“And that’s what makes him dangerous.”
- Writer
