Chapter 17 - Midnight at Grandview Tower
"Marcus, stay with Evelyn! Get SWAT down here!" I screamed, turning on my heel and sprinting toward the emergency stairwell.
"Gabriel, wait! You can't go up there alone!" Marcus shouted behind me, but his voice was swallowed by the deafening roar of the fire alarm sirens.
I threw open the stairwell door and began scrambling up forty flights of concrete stairs, two steps at a time. My lungs burned like fire, my legs felt like lead, but the image of my family drove me forward.
10th floor... 20th floor... 30th floor...
Outside, a violent autumn thunderstorm hit Phoenix, lightning flashing through the heavy glass windows of the stairwell, illuminating the dark concrete steps.
When I reached the 40th floor—the Penthouse suite—the heavy steel security doors were electronically deadlocked. Smoke from a localized tear-gas grenade was pouring under the door seam.
Through the heavy reinforced glass window of the fire door, I saw a shadowy figure in a long rain cloak standing over Jessica, who was slumped against the counter, clutching a crying Olivia in her arms.
The figure turned slowly.
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The lighting flashed, illuminating a withered, cruel face framed by messily chopped hair. It was Carmen. She was wearing her old red dress under the raincoat, holding an industrial crowbar in one hand and a heavy glass bottle of clear liquid in the other.
"Open the door, Zayden!" Carmen’s voice cackled through the intercom speaker on the wall. "Come say goodbye to your precious family!"
