The nightmare hit harder than usual.

Sal jolted awake with a strangled gasp, heart hammering against his ribs like it was trying to escape. Sweat clung to his skin beneath the mask, hot and suffocating. For a moment he didn’t know where he was, the darkness felt too familiar, too much like that night years ago. The night everything changed.

His mother’s scream still echoed in his ears.

He sat up slowly, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. His breath came in uneven pulls, each one catching on the memory lodged in his chest. He tried grounding himself, counting, breathing, focusing on the hum of the apartment building, but the panic clung to him like a second skin.

He couldn’t stay here. Not alone.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he slipped out of bed, pulling on his hoodie with trembling hands. The hallway outside his room was dim, lit only by the faint glow of a flickering bulb. Addison Apartments always felt eerie at night, but tonight the shadows felt heavier, like they were watching.

He padded quietly down the hall, stopping in front of his partner’s door.

For a moment, he hesitated. He didn’t want to wake them. Didn’t want to be a burden. Didn’t want them to see him like this, shaking, scared, stuck in the past he could never outrun.

But the silence behind the door felt safer than the silence in his own room.

He knocked once. Soft. Barely audible.