"This is the first and the last time I'm doing this." Hale's voice carried from somewhere nearby. "Take some public speaking lessons! I'm getting second-hand embarrassment watching you."
Adriel took the power outage as an opportunity to lean back in his chair, allowing himself a small, relieved breath.
As a kid, Adriel had feared darkness, but as an adult, he found solace in it. Maybe it was because he realized humans could be scarier than the hypothetical monsters under his bed.
At some point daylight began to feel too much like a spotlight.
He could still recall the polished marble floors of his childhood home, where each step echoed down long, empty hallways. The suffocating silence after failing to answer a business question his father posed over dinner.
