The darkness seemed to press in from all sides, suffocating and cold.

“I’m not leaving without Owen,” I said.

The light on the black box flickered to red.

The beeping became a solid, continuous tone.

A shadow stepped out from the cellar door, holding a heavy iron bar.

I raised my arms to defend myself.

The darkness swallowed the room.

My father’s shoulder slammed into Courtney, sending her crashing into a stack of plastic storage bins.

The iron bar clattered against the concrete floor, rolling into the shadows.

Courtney screamed, a raw, angry sound, as my father pinned her wrists.

The basement door burst open fully, and three police officers charged down the stairs with their weapons drawn.

“Drop it!” one of them yelled, his flashlight beam washing over us.

They quickly handcuffed Courtney and led her up the stairs, her boots dragging on the concrete.

The blinking red box on the floor was just a commercial motion sensor, rigged to a siren that now wailed overhead.

Outside, blue and red lights flashed against the damp cellar windows.