Chapter 5 - The Flash in the Dark
The sudden blackout swallowed the room in total obsidian darkness, broken only by the pale, eerie glow of Arthur's smartphone screen lying abandoned on the desk.
"Stay still, don't move an inch," Arthur commanded, his voice cutting sharply through the tension as he reached blindly for his phone.
Before his fingers brushed the glowing device, a blinding flash of light erupted from the corner of the office. It was a vintage camera strobe, accompanied by the distinct, mechanical whine of a capacitor charging. The flash illuminated the room for a fraction of a second, burning a temporary afterimage onto their retinas. In that split-second flash, Arthur saw a figure in a heavy trench coat standing by the window, lowering a camera.
"Hey! Stop!" Arthur yelled, lunging blindly toward the corner where the figure had stood.
He collided with a heavy bookshelf, sending a cascade of ancient volumes crashing to the floor in a chaotic clatter of paper and dust. He scrambled around the obstruction, his hands grasping at empty air. By the time his fingers found the window latch and he thrust it open into the night air, the alleyway below was completely empty, slick with a fine drizzle of rain that mirrored the sweat on his neck.
"Did you catch them?" Elena's voice trembled from near the desk, her black silhouette barely visible against the faint ambient light seeping through the open door.
"No," Arthur panted, gripping the window frame. "They're gone. Whoever is playing this sick game is always one step ahead of us."
"Arthur, look at the desk," Leo said. The boy's voice carried an unnatural calmness that was far more unsettling than panic.
Arthur turned back, walking cautiously toward the mahogany desk. Lying beside the open lockbox was a freshly printed Polaroid photograph, the chemical image still developing under the dim hallway light. Arthur stepped closer, his breath catching in his throat as the grainy image came into focus. It was a photograph of the three of them—Arthur, Elena, and Leo—standing right here in this dark office, taken less than ten seconds ago during the blinding flash. But stamped across the bottom of the photo in bold red ink was a timestamp that read: Three years ago tonight.
Elena gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as she stared at the impossible date. "That's... that's impossible. We weren't even in this city three years ago. We were across the state."
"Unless," Leo whispered, his eyes wide as he looked between them, "we never left."
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Before anyone could process the terrifying implication of the boy's words, the heavy fire door behind them slammed shut with a thunderous bang, followed by the distinct sound of a heavy deadbolt sliding into place from the outside, locking them inside the room.
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