Page 117 of Stay Scared

The dead monitor holds the message for four seconds.

I STILL SAW YOU.

Then the server room goes black.

The white fixtures vanish, and cooling fans wind down around us until their mechanical rush thins into silence. Every status light inside Owen’s racks disappears. The tablet dies in my hand.

“Owen, tell me what happened.”

“The local mirror lost power.”

His voice comes from somewhere near the desk. A drawer opens, and equipment scrapes through the dark.

The archive door strikes the wall as Cade enters, a rolled set of paper plans tucked under one arm. Ash follows with his black mask hanging from one hand.

“What the hell happened?” Cade asks.

“Rook killed the power.”

Ash tests the radio at his shoulder. Static answers, and he tears the useless earpiece free.

“Backup power should have engaged.”

“It didn’t.”

For the first time since I entered Crimson Night, the building gives us nothing. The music is gone. So are the mechanical laughter, distorted voices crawling through speakers, and even the ventilation.

The silence leaves too much room for somebody else to move inside it.

Cade crosses toward my voice. “You dressed?”

“I am.”

His hand finds my elbow in the dark, closes long enough to locate the rest of me, then leaves.

Owen opens another drawer. A weak beam appears near the floor.

“Conserve the battery,” Ash says.

“I need the blackout cabinet.”

The light sweeps across the wall until it catches a recessed compartment beside the entrance. Cade forces it open, revealing ropes woven with reflective markers, mechanical keys, chalk, and two folded maps sealed in plastic.

“Lanterns are gone,” Cade says.

“Rook removed them.”

Cade gives a humorless breath. “He really has been living in your fucking walls.”

Ash says nothing.

Owen angles the light toward the maps. One shows the Decay Brigade renovations. The second predates Crimson Night entirely, with several passages on the older plan missing from the newer one.

“Where are we?”

Owen points near the lower edge. “Beneath the old arcade. The west maintenance passage eventually reaches the original projection service hall.”

“That route was blocked on the digital map,” Cade says.