The power went out at 2:07am.
Aria was awake — she had been most nights lately, the particular alertness of someone whose environment had become charged with something that made sleep feel like a waste — and the sudden darkness was total and immediate. She sat up.
Her phone flashlight was on in four seconds. Her door was locked — the inside lock, the one Rosa had told her about on the first night. She listened.
The building was not silent. Buildings are never truly silent. But this was a different quality of sound than the building’s usual nocturnal presence. Footsteps, below. Multiple sets. The specific careful tread of people moving in darkness with purpose.
Her phone lit up. A text from Luca: Stay in your room. Door locked. Do not open it for anyone until I tell you.
She texted bac
