The darkness fell with the totality of a theatre blackout—instant, absolute, smothering.
For half a second no one breathed.

Then—

‘Nobody move,’ Don said, his voice the only fixed point in the sudden void.
‘Stay exactly where you are.’

A scrape of chair legs. A sharp inhale. The smell of old carpet and cooling coffee rose like steam around them.

Fizz exhaled shakily. ‘Power cut. Deliberate. Timing’s too precise for anything else.’

‘Phones still dead?’ Riggs asked.

They checked.
All dead.
Not even emergency signal.

Georgie lifted her hand and immediately lost sight of it. ‘I can’t see a thing.’

‘Emergency lights should have kicked in,’ Samson said. &lsqu...

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