Fractures
LAURA’S POV
The house was humming with its usual rhythm—Melina cooking in the kitchen, Lilly mopping the floor, the twins upstairs playing in their room, laughter occasionally spilling down the hallway.
Then, without warning, everything went dark.
A deep, eerie silence followed.
The lights blinked out.
The refrigerator stopped humming.
The television cut off mid-cartoon.
Even the digital clocks froze, flashing red zeroes.
“Damn it,” Melina muttered from the kitchen.
I stood in the hallway, heart skipping. Not because of the blackout—we had backup generators for situations like this—but because of the sudden shift in atmosphere. The house had never felt so quiet. So still.
I heard Lilly clunk her mop down on the bucket and call out, “I’ll check the main fuse!”
Her foo
