They were all on edge.
Every corner looked like a threat. Every sound felt too loud. The sky was too blue, as if mocking them.
Trey sat in the center of the hotel room, wrapped in blankets like they could protect him. He hadn't spoken much since Leila wrote his name first. He just stared—into nothing, and sometimes, into the mirror.
"You're not going anywhere," Brooke said firmly. "We're all staying with you. We're not letting you die."
"You can't stop it," Trey muttered. "You saw what happened to those people in the first collapse… it got all of them."
"Then we fight smarter," Omar said, moving a dresser in front of the hotel window. "We control the environment."
"Lock the door," Nia added. "No sharp objects. No outlets. Hell, let's unplug the TV too."
Everyone nodded.
Paranoia was thick. The only light came from a desk lamp pointed at the floor. The mirror on the wall was draped with a towel. And still—Trey felt like something was coming.
Night Fell. Then the Noise Began.
A sound like distant thunder.
A pulse in the floorboards.
"You hear that?" Luke asked, pausing mid-bite of a cold sandwich.
Suddenly—
WHUP-WHUP-WHUP-WHUP.
The roar of a helicopter overhead. Its searchlight flickered through the blocked window like a god's eye.
"Stay down!" Omar shouted. "It's just flying past!"
But the sound didn't pass. It grew louder. More erratic.
Outside, a news helicopter was trying to hover, but something was wrong. It began spinning slowly, blades groaning in protest.
Down on the street, people screamed and scattered.
The wind shattered windows in a neighboring building.
And above—
CRACK!
A metal panel flew loose from the helicopter's side mid-spin. It shot like a discus—smashing straight into the hotel's upper windows.
Inside, they ducked—but the sound kept coming.
A brutal screech of steel meeting glass, and then—
The mirror fell.
The Death of Trey
The towel slipped. No one touched it. But the towel slid off the mirror.
Trey, trembling in the center of the room, looked up by instinct.
His eyes caught his reflection.
His mouth dropped open—because he saw someone else in the mirror.
Himself… but dead.
Mangled. Broken. Blood leaking from his eyes.
"No—" he screamed, backing up.
CRASH.
The helicopter's tail snapped and spiraled downward, breaking through the top floor of the hotel in a plume of sparks and debris.
As they all ducked and ran—
The blades from the helicopter ripped through the ceiling, and in a spray of drywall, wiring, and fire—
One metal shard hurled down, slicing straight through Trey.
It pinned him against the mirror behind him, shattering it completely, his body skewered like a puppet—his face reflected in a thousand broken pieces.
Blood ran down the wall. The helicopter smoldered above.
The room was filled with screams.
And silence.
Trey was gone.
They All Knew Now
No amount of blankets, locked doors, or teamwork could stop this.
Death wasn't just coming.
It was already inside.
End of Chapter 19