The moment Damian opens the video, I know.
There is a shift in the air that has nothing to do with sound. My skin prickles. My stomach tightens so fast it feels like instinct rather than fear, like something old and animal inside me recognizing danger before my mind can catch up.
The screen fills with a dim room.
The lighting is poor, yellowed and uneven, like a single bulb hanging too low. The camera jitters slightly, handheld, intimate in the worst possible way. Whoever is holding the phone wants this to feel close.
Adrian steps into view.
My breath catches. Not because I did not expect him. I did. But because seeing him like this, calm and deliberate, makes everything in my body recoil. There is no frenzy in him. No visible rush. He looks like a man in complete control, and that is
