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With a decisive click,she prepared to shut the laptop, ready to cast the day's discoveries into thevault of tomorrow's problems. But as darkness threatened to reclaim her screen,a sharp ringtone sliced through the silence.
Ben's name pulsed onher phone’s display, and her pulse quickened in tandem.
A million thoughtsraced through her head. Why now? Their last conversation had been anything butpleasant, a mishmash of accusations and defensiveness. The hour was too latefor casual conversation, too charged with the unknown.
Her hand hovered overthe phone, trembling slightly, betraying the fear that snaked through herveins.
She answered it.
‘Ben?’ Her voice,edged with surprise, barely preceded the startling disruption from the otherend. A thud resonated through the receiver—a sound grotesquely intimate andabruptly severed.
‘Ben?’ she repeated,her call into the void going unanswered.
The room contractedaround her as instinct propelled her into action. Redialing was automatic; herfingers knew the dance well. But the line echoed back only emptiness, refusingto connect her to the answer she sought. The silence on the other end of theline was a gaping chasm, pulling her into its depths, her fears multiplyingwith each unanswered ring.
Fear took root in herchest, its tendrils creeping and coiling in the pit of her stomach. What if theconcept of a guardian angel wasn't so far-fetched? If such a being existed,meting out a twisted form of justice, then logic dictated a pattern—and Ben wouldfit the sequence all too well.
Ella's mind grappledwith the implications. Scenarios played out in rapid succession, none endingwith Ben simply forgetting to charge his phone or accidentally dialing hernumber. No, the thud was ominous, a harbinger of something gone terribly wrong.
She rose from herchair, her limbs infused with a restless energy. Inaction was not an option.Ella grabbed her keys and jacket. The night loomed beyond her window, a canvaspainted with uncertainty and dread, but she knew she had to step into it. ForBen. For answers. For her own sanity amidst the chaos swirling dangerouslyclose.
***
Ella Dark's hearthammered against her ribs as she burst through the entrance of Ben's apartmentcomplex, urgency lending speed to her strides. The usual hum of life withinthese walls was eerily absent, the corridors swallowed by an unnatural void,save for a sliver of moonlight that slipped through the windows, barelytouching the edges of the darkness. The street lamps outside continued to glow,confirming her sinking suspicion.
The power to Ben’scomplex had been deliberately severed.
The rhythm of herboots bounced off the walls as she ascended the stairs, two at a time. Shereached the second floor, muscles coiled tight, every sense straining againstthe oppressive blackness. Approaching Ben's door, Ella's hand trembled as itformed a fist, knocking urgently.
‘Ben!’ Her voice,strained with anxiety, cut through the stillness like a knife.
No response came, onlythe echo of her own call taunting her from the emptiness. Ella gripped thedoorknob, twisting it with futile hope, before her instincts took over. With agrunt of determination, she threw her shoulder against the stubborn barrier, thecrack of splintering wood filling the air as the door gave way.
But as the broken doorswung open, revealing the dark maw of Ben's apartment, any sense of triumphquickly evaporated. The interior sprawled out before her, shrouded in darkness,an ominous void that seemed to pulse with an unseen threat.
‘Ben! Are you here?’she called again. As she stepped over the threshold, her eyes strained againstthe darkness, her body tensed for any sign of movement, any hint of danger. Thesilence that greeted Ella was a tangible thing, a suffocating blanket of uneasethat settled around her, heightening her senses to a near-painful degree. Herhand found the wall, fingertips brushing against the cool, familiar texture asshe searched for the light switch, hoping against reason that power wouldmiraculously return at her touch.
But predictably, thedarkness remained unchallenged, leaving her to navigate the unknown terrain bymemory and instinct alone.
The street lampsoutside cast a feeble glow through the windows, their light struggling againstthe overwhelming darkness. It was a small mercy, enough for Ella to discernshapes in the murk. The hallway table seemed untouched, yet there was anunsettling shift in atmosphere, a disquiet that suggested unseen eyes watching,waiting.
She advancedcautiously, every sense straining against the shadows. Her hand brushed past alamp, its cord lifeless—power stripped away by some deliberate act. An icytrickle of fear wormed its way down her spine.
This blackout was noaccident.
As she steppedforward, a floorboard creaked beneath her weight, betraying her position. Shepaused, listening for any sign of movement, any breath that wasn't her own. Butit was the silence that screamed the loudest—a silence that should have beenfilled with the comforting sounds of Ben’s presence.
Her hand found theliving room entrance, and as she stepped through, a primal alertness took hold,the kind that tingled across the skin and tightened the gut.
The scant light fromoutside barely outlined the shapes within the room, but it was enough for Ellato discern two figures shrouded in shadow.
Her pulse quickened,her eyes wide and searching, trying to make sense of the scene before herunraveling senses.
With the barestglimmer of moonlight seeping through the rent curtains, Ella glimpsed a suddenflurry of movement. One shadow disentangled itself from the stillness andlunged toward the balcony doors with a desperation that seemed to claw at thevery air. Glass shuddered under the force as the figure crashed through, thenight swallowing him whole as he vanished over the railing with the recklessabandon of a fugitive diving into the abyss. The figure's escape was a blur ofmovement—a desperate leap that defied the night's calm. Ella heard the thud ofa body landing on the ground below, the rustle of disturbed foliage, and thennothing but the fleeing echoes of footsteps. For a fleeting moment, Ella'sinstinct urged her to give chase, to pursue the shadowy form disappearing intothe darkness. But as adrenaline surged through her veins, a more profoundrealization gripped her.
Her attention snappedback to the second shape in the room. Ben was writhing on the floor, his formcontorted like a marionette with severed strings. Adrenaline flooding herveins, Ella closed the distance between them in seconds. Dropping to her knees,she reached out, her hands shaking as they hovered over him, afraid to causefurther injury.
‘Ben! Talk to me!’ shescreamed.
