The warehouse went black.
Not dim.
Not shadowed.
Black.
The kind of darkness that swallowed shape, distance, and certainty all at once.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Rain hammered against the metal roof. Somewhere deep inside the warehouse, broken glass shifted under someone's boot. A restrained man groaned. A radio crackled and died.
Then the speakers hissed again.
A little girl's voice trembled through the darkness.
"Daddy?"
Lucian stopped breathing.
Allison felt it.
She was standing close enough to him that she could feel the exact second his body locked, every muscle going rigid like someone had shoved a blade through the one place armor couldn't protect.
Then the child's voice came again.
Smaller.
More frightened.
"Please hurry."
Silence crashed down after it.
Anthony whimpered.
"No," he whispered. "No, no, no…"
Theo's voice came from somewhere to Allison's left, low and sharp now. "That was a recording."
Lucian didn't answer.
