Dominic's Pov

The house creaked beneath the silence. Every step I took up the stairs was calculated, slow and deliberate. My heart had tensed up out of rhythm and my throat bulged as I swallowed. The darkness was not just an absence of light, it was palpable, dense and enough to choke someone. The only light came from the soft glow of the streetlamp shining through the blinds on the first floor, painting skeletal fingers of light up and down the walls.

The stairs creaked underfoot and I ...