It started as a distant rumble.
Low and rumbling and easy to ignore. Like a truck down the road or thunderclouds rolling over the hills. You know, the kind of noise that everyone pretends not to hear when they are warm and dry in their house. But it didn't stop. It got louder and all of a sudden the dishes in the kitchen cabinet were clattering. The floor was shaking under their feet. Then Mira's mug slipped from her hand and crashed to the tile, shards of coffee and ceramic shooting across the floor.
"Get down!" Bryce yelled as the earth shuddered hard.
The whole house groaned. Wood was creaking, glass was rattling, and something very heavy in the ceiling was cracking like dry bones. A bookcase in the hall toppled over and thudded to the floor, dust flying in the air. Books went flying like shrapnel.
Julyah just froze for a heartbeat, and then she touched her wrist. The flower tattoo burned bright against her skin. It flared, and then faded, like a lighthouse warning in the fog. This wasn't an earthquake. This was a message.
"Everyone! Garage!" she yelled. Her voice was a knife through the noise. "The RV! Go, now!"
A thick beam came crashing down right behind Tom. Adrian was reflex. He grabbed the boy by his coat collar and jerked him to the side just in time. Dust and splinters whizzed past their heads.
"Move!" Adrian yelled, herding Tom towards the hallway.
The tile floor split down the middle, lightning crack. A jagged fissure opened through the living room, devouring half the couch. The front door collapsed in on itself, half-buried in stone and wood.
Ellis dodged a tumbling chair and charged into the hallway. He didn't ask if she was alright. He just took her hand and tugged. "Not leaving you behind, angel. Come on."
She didn't argue. She was solid. Calm in a way that made everyone else feel strong. Even when the walls rattled and the air got thick with dust, she looked like she knew what to do. The tattoo on her wrist faded once more.
Greer kicked the hallway door open and ducked under a swinging light fixture. He turned back and yelled, "I'll get the supplies!"
"Don't take long!" Bryce called back as he heaved Tom toward the garage. "The house is breaking apart!"
The back wall of the villa ripped down the center, like an axe had been taken to it. Wind and snow flew inside, blowing the curtains sideways like sails.
Another tremor hit. Julyah stumbled, Ellis wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close to his chest as plaster pelted the floor from the ceiling.
"You okay?" he asked, his voice rasping against her ear.
She nodded. Once. "Go!"
Adrian caught up, looking tense. He moved to her other side and hooked an arm around her waist to help steady her. Behind them the walls sagged and moaned. Pieces of the ceiling came down with loud, cracking thumps.
Between Ellis up front and Adrian behind them, they plowed through the hall. Each step was a risk. The floor felt as though it might collapse beneath them at any moment.
Greer didn't hesitate in the supply room. He grabbed the first emergency bags he found – food packs, water, first-aid kits, etcetera – and flung them into an old plastic bin. The old rifle was leaning in the corner, so he snatched that too. The floor had started to tilt. One of the support beams screamed with a hard creak. He kicked the door open and heaved the supplies into the snow, then dove after them just as the room started to tilt and crumble behind him.
In the garage, Bryce and Tom were wrestling with the heavy sliding door. The RV was shifting in its foundation, metal groaning.
"Come on, come on, come on," Bryce muttered, sweat beading on his brow despite the cold.
Mira pushed her shoulder into the door and helped shove it open."We are not dying in a luxury cabin. That is the most boring obituary ever!"
"Speak for yourself," Ellis shouted as he barreled into the garage with Julyah. "I want mine to read: 'Died dramatically in villa collapse. Shirt open. Hair flawless.'"
Adrian didn't smile. He was intent, taking Julyah straight to the RV. "Get her inside. Now."
The ground rolled again. Harder this time. The second floor of the villa heaved a loud groan and then collapsed. A huge piece of the upper level slid off the side, frosting scraping off a cake. The sound was deafening.
Greer staggered into the garage from the snow, plastic bin bouncing against his back. His coat was soaked. Snow was plastered to his beard. "I've got the gear!"
"Then get in!" Mira shouted, pulling the RV door open.
Everyone piled in. Greer threw the supplies in first, then scrambled in after them. Mira bashed the RV door shut just as a wooden beam came crashing down right where Ellis had been standing.
"Close one," Ellis said, breathing hard. "I bet you all missed me for a second."
"Regrettably," Mira said, gasping for breath.
Inside the RV, it was silent except for the sound of everyone breathing hard and the distant moans of the dying villa. Adrian got Julyah to the kitchenette and she leaned against the counter, closing her eyes for a moment.
She opened them slowly and she looked at him. "We can't stay here."
"No," Adrian agreed, voice low and even. "But you knew this was going to happen."
She didn't answer right away. Her eyes seemed to be looking somewhere else. Far away. Or far back in time.
"Not this soon," she finally said.
Outside, the once-grand villa continued to collapse. What had been their home for the past several months was now a hollow shell, half-swallowed by snow and the shifting earth.
Inside the RV, the heat still worked. Breathing fogged up the windows. The supplies were here. No one was hurt. Not yet.
Julyah straightened her shoulders. Her fingers moved to her wrist once more. The tattoo of the flower glowed softly against her skin, warm and gentle.
She stared out the window at what remained of the villa. She didn't cry. She didn't flinch. She just watched. Like someone listening to an old friend say goodbye.
Whatever had been chasing them through this broken world—it had finally caught up. And Julyah knew this was only the beginning.