DON'S POV
The lower corridor felt different before I could explain why, I noticed it the way I noticed most things without any outward reaction that would betray the shift happening quietly beneath my composure. Just that cold, familiar twitch at the back of my mind. The part of me that had been sharpened by years of moving through a world where missing small details got men buried.
Something was off.
My footsteps slowed without me consciously deciding to slow them. The corridor stretched ahead, dim and narrow, the overhead lights casting their usual pale lights across the stone floor in uneven intervals. Shadows pooled in the corners between each light source, thick and undisturbed.
I stopped completely.
My eyes moved across the corridor slowly. Doorway to doorway. Shadow to shadow. Corner to corner. The kind of sweep that looked casual to anyone watching but missed absolutely nothing.
