2026-11-04 00:10:44Sara made her way down to the underground garage.
Even at midday, the place was so dark she had to use her phone as a flashlight. The beam skated over concrete and puddles of black ice, and every echo of her footsteps felt like a gunshot.
She reached the entrance to Rhys’s basement, typed a message with trembling thumbs, and knocked softly on the steel door.
Creak!
The door swung open on its own.
She hurried inside.
But some distance behind her, tucked into the black shadow of a pillar, Paul had seen everything.
Rhys.
It really was Rhys!
Paul’s whole body shook. Rage and humiliation rolled through him in a single wave. His wife had been sneaking out to see another man! No wonder she kept managing to bring home food.
He wanted to charge in right then. But the steel door was as thick as a bank vault. He could have beaten his fists to pulp against it all night and never so much as scratched the paint.
He ground his teeth.
“I’ll get a knife.”
He turned and ran.
Inside, warm air wrapped around Sara like a blanket.
The bright lights hit her face, and for a moment, it felt as if she’d been given a second life. Heat. Light. The smell of food. After days of dark, bone-deep cold, it was almost too much to bear.
She couldn’t help it. A tiny, treacherous thought crept in.
Why does Rhys own this house, and not Paul?
“Go ahead,” Rhys said. “Eat.”
Sara sat down and picked up her chopsticks.
At first she tried to keep her composure. She held her back straight. She chewed slowly. But since yesterday she’d had one packet of instant noodles. Even when dieting for her figure, she had never eaten so little.
Once she started, she couldn’t stop.
In minutes, she’d cleaned every plate.
Rhys slid an apple across the table.
Her eyes went wide. Fresh fruit. In a time like this.
For a moment, the thought flickered through her mind like a match in the wind: What if I left Paul? What if I stayed with Rhys? I’d never be hungry again.
Then she shuddered, ashamed.
How shameless can I be, to give up my husband for a little food?
“Go wash up first,” Rhys said.
Sara blinked.
She hadn’t showered in several days. She’d started to smell stale. Fortunately, it was so cold that everyone smelled the same.
But is he dreaming?
First, the pipes had frozen solid, so no water would flow. Second, even if there was water, it might be poisoned. Who would dare touch it?
Rhys walked into the bathroom, turned the handle, and steam rolled out.
Hot water. Real, running, steaming hot water! Sara gasped.
He held out a palm and let it pour over his skin.
“Is that…” Sara’s voice broke. “Is that clean water?”
She had always been meticulous. In her old life, she’d showered twice a day. She had missed it so badly she’d almost cried.
“Go ahead,” Rhys said, waving a hand toward the stall.
Sara stepped forward, her fingers already reaching for her sweater.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A violent pounding erupted from the basement door, so loud it shook the bolts.
Sara froze.
Rhys turned his head slowly.
On the camera screen beside the sink, a man stood in the garage’s dim light, red-faced, wild-eyed, breathing like a bull.
In his right hand, he held a kitchen knife.
Paul had arrived!
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Chapter 47: six men and a plan
Sara left.Rhys worried she’d struggle to stay alone in that apartment, with the blood and the silence. So he introduced her to Jenna Dawson. Jenna was delighted. Living alone made her feel unsafe, too.He gave them both advice. Keep your doors locked. Don’t open them for anyone. Check carefully before you step outside.The last point was unlikely to matter, though, because the weather was getting worse. The city had never seen temperatures below minus ten, and people’s winter clothes weren’t built for it. A short walk might be bearable. Staying out was another story.And that was only minus ten or fifteen. At minus forty or fifty, the air could freeze the lungs and damage the organs. Even twenty minutes outside might be fatal.They just had to be careful.Rhys wasn’t offering this help out of the goodness of his heart. Sara was beautiful. She had a good figure.“After killing Paul in public, I’ll probably become something like a demon king in this neighborhood.”He thought.The dow
Chapter 46: Ten packets
Whoosh!The flashlight beam speared straight into Paul’s eyes.He threw up a hand to cover them. It didn’t help. He stumbled backward until his spine thudded against the wall of the passage.The light shifted. Rhys stepped out through the doorway, tall and calm, his shadow rolling across the concrete like a wave.“You’re asking for a lot,” he said coldly.“Rhys! I’ll kill you!”Paul roared and swung the knife. In truth, he couldn’t see where Rhys was. He just hacked toward the light, blinded and swollen with rage.Rhys sneered and kicked him.Paul couldn’t see his opponent. Rhys could see him perfectly. The kick landed squarely in Paul’s stomach, folding him in half and flinging him backward out of the passage. He dropped onto his backside in the garage.Clang!The kitchen knife skidded across the floor.Rhys walked over, picked it up, and stepped toward him. By the time Paul recovered his senses, the blade was pointed at his face.He nearly piss himself.All the courage that anger ha
Chapter 45: The audience
Paul had burst into the underground garage with a kitchen knife in his fist.He looked like a man ready to kill. Everyone he passed hurried out of his path.“What’s going on?”“Is he going to fight someone to the death?”“Did somebody steal his family’s food?”At a time like this, what could be worse than having your food and water stolen?Paul was too furious to notice any of it. He marched straight toward Rhys’s mansion.He had seen Sara walk through that door with his own eyes. What else was there to understand?“That bitch sold me out for food!”The thought made him angrier. His hand shook around the handle.He plunged into the long, black passage. His phone battery was dead, so he had no light. In his rage, he kept charging forward through the dark, slammed into walls, cursing even louder.At last, he found the steel door and started hammering it with the knife.“Rhys! You motherfucker! You touched my wife! Get out here! I’ll hack you to pieces!”The noise drew more and more nei
Chapter 44: hot water
Sara made her way down to the underground garage.Even at midday, the place was so dark she had to use her phone as a flashlight. The beam skated over concrete and puddles of black ice, and every echo of her footsteps felt like a gunshot.She reached the entrance to Rhys’s basement, typed a message with trembling thumbs, and knocked softly on the steel door.Creak!The door swung open on its own.She hurried inside.But some distance behind her, tucked into the black shadow of a pillar, Paul had seen everything.Rhys.It really was Rhys!Paul’s whole body shook. Rage and humiliation rolled through him in a single wave. His wife had been sneaking out to see another man! No wonder she kept managing to bring home food. He wanted to charge in right then. But the steel door was as thick as a bank vault. He could have beaten his fists to pulp against it all night and never so much as scratched the paint.He ground his teeth.“I’ll get a knife.”He turned and ran.Inside, warm air wrapped a
Chapter 43: Whispers in the cold
On the morning of the sixth day, Rhys took Duke down to the garage.The air was tight enough to snap.Everyone watched everyone else with narrowed eyes, as if the neighbors they’d lived beside for years had overnight become enemies. Conversations died when he walked past. People clutched their coats closer.“Maybe I should walk the dog only at night from now on.” He thought.With the ammunition in his dimensional space, Rhys could kill everyone in this neighborhood several times over in a straight fight. But if people turned into enemies, would they all attack from the front? He had no eyes in the back of his head. What if someone came from behind?Open attacks were easy to avoid. Hidden ones were the dangerous kind. It was better to be extra careful. He’d gotten a dog to ease the boredom, not to put himself at risk.And he noticed plenty of people watching him with hostile interest.“Showing off my supplies in the group chat has made me a target.”He wasn’t especially worried. If t
Chapter 42: Bang!
Crack!Only when they heard the lock slide home did the five of them understand what had happened.What’s going on?A light snapped on overhead, flooding the room.The Parks froze. Is this place haunted? The door had opened by itself. It had shut by itself. And now the lights were coming on, too?“What are you doing here so late at night?”Rhys leaned against the far wall with a yawn, one hand rubbing his eyes.He had been on his way to bed when an alert on his phone woke him. The infrared cameras had picked up movement in the garage. Watching the five of them turn to leave, he’d thoughtfully opened the door with his remote. Now that they were inside, he had simply closed it.At first the intruders were startled. But in a few seconds, they realized that Rhys had controlled the door and the lights the whole time.Then they calmed down.One man. Five of them. Rhys wasn’t even holding a weapon. How could they lose?“There’s electricity in here!” Mrs. Park gasped.Kang grinned, delighted.
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