Chapter 16 A Stormy Night

• The storm had rolled in quietly at first, a soft rumble of thunder in the distance, but it didn’t take long for the rain to come pouring down in sheets. Celia had been reading in the living room, curled up on the sofa, when the first flash of lightning lit up the sky. She looked out the window, watching the wind whip the trees in the garden, the storm’s intensity growing with every passing minute.
• Then, just as she was about to reach for her phone to check the weather, the mansion went dark.
• The sudden silence that followed the power outage was almost eerie. Celia blinked a few times, her eyes still adjusting to the dark, before she realized that the storm had knocked out the electricity. The wind howled outside, shaking the windows as the rain pelted against them like a drumbeat.