Chapter Three: You Were Painted Too

The girl's features emerged from the lines. She did not have a seventeen-year-old's gaze; her eyes held the calm of someone who had watched too many people disappear. At her neck, Lin discovered a faint number: 12. At 11:50 p.m., the building lost power. Not just the building. Beyond the window, block after block went dark. His phone continued on backup power while the audience count began falling. Someone downstairs shouted fire. The smell of burning insulation slid beneath the door. Blue-white flame ignited along the kitchen wall. It did not rise. It ran backward through the wiring as if erasing something from the building. Ten minutes remained.