Seraphina's Point Of View
The ringing in my ears was deafening, a high-pitched metallic shriek that made the room warp and wobble like a cheap reflection in a funhouse mirror. I forced my eyelids up, blinking through a sticky haze of tears and whatever was dripping down the back of my neck.
My thoughts scattered like startled birds, refusing to settle into anything coherent. I tried to anchor myself to something solid… a sound, a shape, anything, but the world kept sliding sideways, refusing to hold still long enough for me to catch my bearings.
Through the blur of the shattered doorway, a figure stepped into the apartment. Tall, broad-shouldered, radiating a terrifying, absolute stillness that made the remaining air in the room completely freeze, as if the world itself had paused to take notice of him.
