Chapter 308: smoke

CHAPTER 309

KATYA POV

The door opened without a sound. Neither of us moved. For one long second, we simply stood there, staring through the narrow opening as if the hallway beyond might suddenly change its mind and slam shut again.

My heartbeat was so loud I could hear it in my ears, I swallowed. Chiara leaned closer, peering through the gap.

“Do you see anyone?” she whispered.

I shook my head.

“No.”

“Good.”

She pushed the door open another few inches. The corridor outside was empty. The lights overhead glowed steadily, washing the hallway in soft yellow light that somehow made everything feel even stranger.

Too normal.

As though the world hadn’t fallen apart just beyond these walls. I stepped out first.

Slowly. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but something stronger told me not to. Running made noise. Noise attracted attention. And right now, I had no idea whose attention that might be.

Behind me, Chiara slipped into the hallway and quietly eased the door shut until it clicked. The sound made both of us flinch.

We froze.

Waiting. Listening. Nothing. No footsteps. No voices. Only the distant roar drifting up from somewhere below. It wasn’t music anymore. It was chaos. People still shouting over one another.

Furniture scraping. Doors slamming. Someone yelling instructions I couldn’t make out.

My stomach tightened.

Whatever had happened downstairs… It wasn’t over.

“Come on,” I whispered. Chiara nodded. For once, she didn’t have a joke. She stayed close enough that our shoulders almost brushed as we began walking down the corridor.

Each step felt impossibly loud. The hallway that had seemed elegant earlier now felt abandoned.

Office doors stood closed. Decorative lights cast long shadows across the polished floor. There wasn’t a single member of staff in sight. Not one.

For a club that had been bursting with people less than fifteen minutes ago… It was unnaturally empty.

Not completely. Just… wrong.

Like everyone had vanished in the same direction. A strange smell drifted through the corridor.

I frowned.

Smoke. At first it was faint enough that I thought I had imagined it, blending with the expensive perfume and lingering scent of alcohol that seemed permanently soaked into the walls.

Then it came again. Stronger.

Sharper. Not cigarette smoke. Something heavier. Something burning. I stopped walking. “Do you smell that?” Chiara sniffed the air.

Her expression immediately changed.

“…Yeah.”

The joking disappeared from her face. Neither of us spoke after that. We simply looked at each other, without saying another word, we started walking faster.

The shouting downstairs seemed louder now.

Closer. It wasn’t one voice. It was dozens. People yelling over one another. Someone crying. Someone screaming for security.

Another loud crash echoed through the building, making me flinch so hard my shoulder brushed against the wall.

“What was that?” Chiara whispered.

“I don’t know.” I hated how many times I’d said those three words tonight.

We rounded the final corner. The private VIP section came into view. It looked almost exactly as we had left it earlier.

Elegant sofas. Low tables.

Golden lighting. Half-finished drinks abandoned where people had left them. But the illusion lasted only a second. Beyond the velvet railing… The staircase leading back down to the main floor came into view.

And so did the smoke. My feet stopped moving. “Oh…” The word barely escaped my lips.

Gray smoke rolled upward from below in thick, uneven waves, curling around the staircase and swallowing the lower level until it became almost impossible to see more than a few meters ahead.

It wasn’t black. But it was dense enough to sting my eyes immediately.

The smell hit harder now. Something electrical mixed with something else I couldn’t identify. The screams echoed through it.

People were still trying to force themselves toward the front entrance. I could barely make them out through the haze. Just blurred figures shoving against one another.

Silhouettes disappearing and reappearing inside the smoke. Someone stumbled. Another person pulled them back up before both disappeared into the moving crowd.

The front doors looked impossibly far away. All I could see was people. Too many people. Trying to squeeze through the same space.

Panic spread through my chest so quickly it almost hurt.

“Oh my God…”

I stood there, frozen. Unable to tear my eyes away from the scene below. Everything felt unreal. Like I was watching it through a television screen instead of standing above it.

The club I’d walked into earlier no longer existed. This was something else.

Something frightening. Something completely out of control. A warm hand slipped around mine.

I looked down automatically. Chiara. She was staring at me now instead of the smoke. Her own face had gone pale beneath the club lights. Her eyes still looked slightly unfocused from the alcohol, but there was something else there now.

“Katya.”

I blinked.

She squeezed my hand.

“We have to go.” I looked back toward the staircase.

Toward the smoke.

“I…” My throat tightened. “How?.” She tore her gaze from me with a sigh. My legs refused to move. Chiara gave my hand another tug.

“Come on.”

I forced my feet forward. One step. Then another. We reached the top of the staircase together. The moment we started descending, the smoke grew thicker.

The air changed almost immediately. Every breath felt more difficult than the last. I covered my mouth instinctively with my free hand. It barely helped. By the fifth step, my eyes had begun to sting.

By the eighth, I was coughing. A harsh cough tore from my throat before I could stop it. Beside me, Chiara coughed too. She bent forward slightly, squeezing my hand so tightly it almost hurt.

“Keep… going,” she managed between coughs.

I nodded, though I wasn’t sure she could even see me anymore.

The smoke had become so thick that the bottom of the staircase had disappeared completely.

All I could see now were shifting shadows.

Moving figures.

The desperate sounds of people trying to escape.

And somewhere beneath it all… an open door.