The silence was the first thing everyone noticed.
It wasn't just the absence of light. It was the absence of sound. The constant, low hum of a million refrigerators, computers, and air conditioners—the background noise of modern life—had been snuffed out. Athens wasn't just dark. It was mute.
Then the voices started.
"What happened?"
"Power's out."
"Must be a transformer."
"Check your breakers!"
The initial reactions were practical, annoyed. People fumbled for phones, their screens providing little islands of blue light in the overwhelming black. But the phones had no signal. No internet. Nothing. They were just flashlights now.
On a balcony overlooking the Plaka district, a man named Nikos lowered his phone, a cold knot tightening in his stomach. "The network is down too," he said to his wife. "Everything. That's not a blackout. That's... something else."
