Lightning flashes, thunder rumbles, and the sky is a mute gray. Everything sets the mood to be gloomy and depressed. Like a low budget noir movie made by an unprofessional production team.

Claudia sighs loudly.

"What is it now?" Her mother Miranda’s irritated voice cuts through the air. She is busy reading her tablet and not looking up at her youngest daughter.

"Nothing." Claudia answers with no joy or anger. Just nothing.

Flat. Lifeless.

"Then stop sighing. That’s your fiftieth in the last two minutes." Miranda scolds her.

Claudia rolls her eyes. "How can that be, Mother? Did you count them one by one?" She is very annoyed.

Miranda’s head snaps toward Claudia. "What did you just say?"

Claudia doesn’t flinch at her mother’s angry tone. "I said, how would you even know I’ve sighed fifty times in two minutes. Did you count each one? Because if you did, that means you haven’t been reading. Which is exactly what you look like you’re doing."

"How dare you say that to your mother. I am your mother! Mo. Ther!" Miranda shrieks.

Claudia acts like she doesn’t have a care in the world. She lies on her stomach on the sofa in the living room of the Monfort’s monstrous mansion, not doing anything. Just lying there, wasting away.

At her mother’s raised voice, she only waves one hand dismissively, which only makes Miranda angrier.

Miranda launches into a verbal tirade, both hands on her hips, voice rising, just like a cruel stepmother berating her stepdaughter.

This is the scene that greets Linus when he enters the living room. He stops in his tracks. He is holding his suit jacket in one hand and a folder of documents in the other.

He looks between his wife and his daughter, neither of them acting anything like their usual selves. He frowns and sighs. He sets both items down on the nearby table and approaches the two women.

Linus doesn’t deliberately walk in silence. He walks the way he normally would, his footsteps echoing through the living room. Miranda doesn’t turn to greet him the way she normally would. Further proof that something is very wrong.

Linus steps up behind Miranda and places a hand on her shoulder.

"Miranda." One word, normal tone.

The effect is immediate.

Miranda stops mid-sentence and freezes, as if waking from a daydream.

She turns slowly, just enough to see that her husband is there.

"Linus?" She calls, as though she can’t quite believe he is real.

"Yes, it’s me." His voice is soft and gentle. If his employees could hear him now, they would be convinced he had been possessed by a demon.

"What — what are you doing here? How come I didn’t hear you come in?" Miranda is confused. She glances toward Claudia, who still hasn’t moved or looked at either of them.

"What — what am I doing?" The strength suddenly leaves her legs. Her knees buckle and her body sways.

Linus catches her quickly and helps her down onto the sofa.

He crouches until they are at eye level.

"You okay?" He asks.

Miranda instinctively starts to nod, then stops herself.

"I don’t know." She looks utterly lost and out of place.

Linus sighs faintly and leans forward to kiss her forehead.

"It’s okay. I’m here. Everything is going to be okay. Now I need to go wake our daughter up."

Miranda only blinks, her eyes following her husband as he gets up and walks toward Claudia.

He places his hand on Claudia’s shoulder and calls her gently. "Claudia."

Claudia tenses. Linus can feel it beneath his hand.

She freezes, then slowly turns over onto her back, staring up at her father.

"Father?" Her voice is unsteady and small.

He crouches down until his face is level with hers.

"Yes, it’s me. I’m here." He tilts his head and smiles gently.

Claudia springs into action. She launches herself at him, arms wrapping around his neck, face buried in his shoulder.

"Dad!" Her voice is full of emotion and relief.

Linus wraps his arms around his daughter and pats her back, soothing her in silence.

They stay like that for a few seconds before Miranda breaks the silence.

"Alright, alright. Claudia, stop hugging your father like that, you’re not five anymore. You’re nineteen. Act like it. And Linus, don’t give in. How can you stay crouched like that? Won’t your legs go numb?"

"It’s alright." Linus responds.

"I don’t care." Claudia’s muffled voice follows.

They both speak at the same time.

Miranda lets out a small laugh. Even though she is scolding both her husband and her daughter, it sounds nothing like before.

After a while, Linus gets up with Claudia still in his arms, clinging to him in a full bear hug.

"You’re lucky your father is a strong man." Linus chuckles, but he doesn’t let go either. He instinctively knows she still needs him close.

"Look at you two. Like a panda and its caregiver." Miranda rolls her eyes, but lovingly.

Linus drops onto the sofa with a heavy "Oof." Claudia stays slung against him.

He turns to Miranda, one hand still patting Claudia’s back.

"How are you feeling? Anything weird? Anything out of place?" His eyes are full of concern.

Miranda turns serious.

"I still don’t know. I feel like myself, but also... something else is there. I remember scolding Claudia, but I don’t remember why or what led me to it. I just had to be angry. I had to lash out."

She frowns. "What’s going on, Linus?"

Linus sighs. "I don’t know. Something similar has been happening at the office. Almost everyone is on edge, and one wrong thing is all it takes to set them off. I’ve noticed it for a few days now, but it’s getting worse."

"It’s like your mind goes cloudy and you can’t think of anything else but being angry. Not annoyed, not irritated. Angry. And you want everyone around you to feel the same way." Claudia says, lifting her head from Linus’ shoulder.

Her parents both look at her. Then the two women look at Linus.

"Are you feeling it too? Are you okay?" Miranda’s frown deepens.

Linus blinks, his eyes moving from Miranda to Claudia and back again.

He shakes his head slowly. "No. I mean, I’m okay. I can feel something actively trying to make me angry. But I don’t feel the urge to act on it. Can you understand what I mean?"

Both women shake their heads.

Linus sighs in frustration. "I don’t understand it either."

------------------------------

Later that night, when Miranda and Claudia are asleep, Linus lies wide awake in bed, staring at the ceiling. The storm outside is still going strong.

He watches the lightning flicker through the window. He looks at Miranda beside him, deep in sleep, and then quietly flips back his blanket, slips on his slippers, and walks silently out of the bedroom.

Inside his study, Linus stands in front of a large portrait painting of his family, still and deep in thought.

His hand reaches the edge of the painting and presses a small button.

On the other side of the study, a corner table moves on its own, smooth and silent, its mechanism clearly well maintained. It reveals a staircase going down.

Linus descends the steps. The door closes behind him on its own and the corner table slides back into place above.

As he descends, motion sensors detect him and the lights come on one by one.

At the bottom, he is met with the door of a large safe, the kind found in bank vaults. Heavy, reinforced steel.

Linus steps in front of it and a scanner drops down from above, sweeping slowly over his entire body.

"Security scan complete. Welcome, Linus Darius Monfort."

The steel door swings open slowly.

Linus enters and goes straight to a wooden box on one of the shelves. It looks worn and ancient. Beside it sits a large modern book, its presence a stark contrast to the wooden box next to it.

He takes both items and carries them to the nearby table. He sits down and opens the wooden box.

Inside is a book with a black cover that looks truly ancient and fragile. Linus pulls on a glove before touching it. He lifts it carefully out of the box and sets it down on the table.

He opens the cover slowly, afraid of damaging it, and stares at the first page.

A single line is written there, in a language he does not understand. If Theo were to see it, he would recognize it as the language of Caelthorn.

Linus traces that single line carefully with his finger.

He then opens the large modern book, without the same reverence he showed the first.

On its first page, the same single line appears, and beneath it, a body of writing in modern Altheon. It is clear that Linus has been attempting to translate the ancient book, and that he has not been successful.

Of that single line, Linus can translate only the first two words, since it is mandatory for all Monfort patriarchs to be able to read and write them.

Magnus Monfort.

The rest of the sentence he has not been able to fully translate, except for one word.

Death.