Then, the landline phone in the kitchen began to ring in the darkness.

The sound was deafening in the sudden silence of the house.

I reached into my pocket for my mobile phone, but the screen had gone black.

“Emma,” Blake’s voice came from the dark near the door. “My phone is dead, too.”

Outside, the streetlights were gone.

The entire block was dark.

In the silence, the kitchen phone kept ringing.

I felt my way along the wall toward the kitchen.

“Don’t answer it,” Clara whispered from the dark.

I reached the kitchen counter and felt the cold plastic of the receiver.

I lifted it to my ear.

“Hello?” I said.

A low, mechanical hum vibrated through the line.

Then, a voice I did not recognize spoke.

“Your security is gone, Ms. Winters,” the voice said. “You have five minutes to leave the house.”

The line went dead.

I stood in the pitch-black kitchen, the receiver cold against my cheek.

A car door slammed outside on the street.

The heavy tread of boots began to walk up our front gravel path.