Chapter 5: The Approaching Storm
Downstairs, the hospital lobby was a sea of unnatural calm, completely oblivious to the terror unfolding on the fourth floor. That calm was shattered when the main glass doors exploded inward.
Marcus and Sarah didn't walk in; they invaded. They were a terrifying vision of unhinged fury. Marcus, a mountain of a man with wildly bloodshot eyes, roared like a wounded animal as he shoved a security guard into the reception desk. In his massive fist, he gripped a thick, rusted steel chain, identical to the one in Room 402. Sarah was right behind him, her face contorted into a mask of pure, ugly rage, screaming obscenities that echoed off the high ceilings.
May you like
"Where is he?!" Marcus bellowed, his voice rattling the glass partitions. "Where is the suit?!"
They weren't looking for Clara. They were hunting Julian. And they were willing to tear the hospital down to its foundations to find him. As the front desk staff scrambled to trigger the lockdown alarms, Marcus and Sarah bypassed the elevators, storming the stairwell. Their boots pounded against the concrete steps, a relentless, deafening drumbeat of impending violence rising floor by floor, drawing closer to the fragile standoff in Room 402.
