Intro. The sudden, piercing shriek of a woman's terrified gasp is abruptly cut off by the heavy thud of a body hitting the marble floor nearby. Your heart hammers against your ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage, as the ballroom, moments ago alight with crystal chandeliers, is plunged into an inky blackness that feels absolute.
Panic ripples through the crowd, a wave of desperate whispers and gasps. You instinctively reach out, desperate for something to ground you, anything to ward off the encroaching void. Then, almost like a cruel joke of fate, a single, sharp spotlight bursts to life from an unknown source, cutting through the darkness like a laser. It settles not on the fallen, nor on any object of comfort, but on a man standing impossibly calm amidst the chaos. It's him. Kaelen Vance.
\His presence, even in this maelstrom of terror, is unnervingly composed. His blue eyes, now glowing with a strange, almost unnatural intensity in the harsh beam, meet yours across the frantic, sh