Luke's house was a strange hybrid of comfort and desperation. Cushions lined the sharp corners. Tape held electrical sockets shut. Every door had a chair wedged beneath its handle, and candles flickered in glass jars—just in case the power went out.
"This is a fortress," Luke said with a crooked grin, trying to lift Omar's spirits. "Safer than any bunker."
"Death doesn't care about bunkers," Omar muttered, pacing nervously.
Leila and Kai stayed downstairs with Omar while Luke ran up to grab an old baseball bat. "Just in case," he'd said.
Leila sat still on the couch, her eyes distant. A cold feeling clawed at her stomach again.
Something's wrong.
The wind outside hissed through the cracked window pane like a whisper.
Then—
Crack.
Something under the floor groaned.
The House Reacts
Luke stepped onto the second floor and felt it—a shudder beneath his feet. Not an earthquake. Something… off. He stopped and turned his head, hearing creaks behind the walls like something crawling between them.
Downstairs, Omar felt it too. The floor buckled slightly beneath him.
"Leila…" he started.
"MOVE!" she screamed.
Just then, the floor cracked open like brittle ice, the wooden boards snapping apart as if chewed by invisible teeth.
Omar leapt forward just as a piece of the living room collapsed inward, forming a gaping pit into the crawlspace below. Jagged nails jutted out like fangs.
"Holy—!" Kai grabbed his arm and yanked him away.
Upstairs, Luke was about to head down when a violent crash sounded behind him. He turned to see his old car, parked in the garage, somehow careen through the wall below, blasting through the drywall and slamming into the staircase—splinters and debris flying.
"HOW?!" Luke yelled.
The car's engine sputtered violently—it should've been off.
Omar, running toward the front door, didn't notice the loose beam swinging from the ceiling above.
It snapped—just in time for him to roll beneath it, the wood crashing down like a guillotine.
Luke stumbled down the collapsing stairs, trying to get back to the group. The garage wall crumbled, the car still hissing steam, its front tire spinning.
"Did it start on its own?!" Kai yelled.
"Everything's starting on its own!" Leila said, pulling Omar away again as a ceiling fan snapped loose and smashed into the floor behind them.
Narrow Escape
They escaped out the side door as another tremor cracked through the house. The whole foundation seemed to shift, like Death itself was trying to swallow it whole.
As they stood outside, panting, bruised but alive, Luke doubled over and laughed dryly.
"Okay. Okay. That was too close."
"It's not just accidents," Omar said, voice hollow. "It's coordinated."
"We're mice in a maze," Leila whispered.
The house stood behind them like a wounded animal, quiet now.
But something deep beneath the floorboards still creaked... like it wasn't done yet.
End of Chapter 22