Nightfall

The lights went out in a huge section of the town centre last night. This wasn’t a power cut or a grid failure—it was a deliberate, controlled blackout. I watched from the upper floor of the hospital as block after block went dark. Dark streets move slower. That’s a tactical reality. If you take away the light, you take away the ability for people to coordinate, to run, or to see what’s coming. It’s not an accident; it’s a way of slowing the town down, of keeping us tethered to our own small circles of candlelight. They are shaping the environment to fit the threat.