THE ARCHITECTS OF GRAVITY: WHY THE FALLS NEVER STOPPED UNTIL THE TRUTH SHATTERED THE FLOOR

Before anyone could process the name on the screen, a heavy, rhythmic pounding echoed from the front of the house upstairs. Thud. Thud. Thud. It sounded like an iron sledgehammer striking the reinforced oak front door, vibrating through the concrete floorboards beneath their feet.

Julian cursed loudly, spinning away from the console. "How is the physical barrier breached? The lockdown protocol requires a direct override code from the main terminal!"

"You left the maintenance backdoor open when you patched the simulation after Claire's first accident," Marcus said coldly, not wasting a single second as he strode toward the concrete staircase leading back up to the living room. "You were so obsessed with keeping her trapped in the loop that you forgot to secure the perimeter against the real world."

Claire followed Marcus closely, dragging the heavy iron wrench behind her. The metal scraped against the concrete steps, sending up a faint spray of orange sparks in the dark stairwell.

"Let him in," Claire said, her voice chillingly calm.

Elena grabbed Claire's arm at the landing, her eyes wide with desperate panic. "Are you insane? If Miller comes inside, he'll see the broken coffee table, the blood, the servers. He'll arrest Julian for murder, and the system will auto-purge. We'll all be deleted!"

"Good," Claire replied, ripping her arm from Elena's grip. "Maybe non-existence is quieter than living the same murder over and over again."

Marcus reached the top of the stairs first, pushing open the door to the living room. The room looked exactly as it had when the cycle began: the shattered glass scattered across the Persian rug, the spilled red wine forming a dark puddle near the sofa, the afternoon sunlight streaming lazily through the bay windows.

Another massive blow struck the front door down the hall, splintering the deadbolt with a sickening crack.

Julian burst into the room behind them, holding a heavy silver revolver he had retrieved from a wall safe behind a painting. His hands shook as he aimed the barrel directly at the front hallway.