Utako was in the middle of a late-night game, half-listening to her online friends argue about loot drops, when everything cut to black.

No lights. No fan. No Wi-Fi.

She froze.

At first, she thought her monitor had died again. But then she noticed the complete silence—the quiet hum of electronics she didn’t realize she depended on was gone. Her room felt heavier without it.

Power outage.

Her phone was at 32%, and without Wi-Fi, she was stuck in offline mode. No Discord. No games. No distractions. Just... herself.

She waited, thinking maybe it’d come back. It always did in movies, right? A flicker, a click, and everything’s normal again. But fifteen minutes passed. Then thirty.

Still nothing.

Her phone data was spotty at best, but she Googled her building's power company and found the emergency line. She stared at the number for a long time. Her stomach tightened.

She hated phone calls. Especially with strangers. Especially for something she wasn’t even sure how to explain. What if they asked questions she couldn’t answer? What if she sounded stupid?

She didn’t want to call. Every part of her said Don’t.

But sitting in the dark with no Wi-Fi, no games, and no voices on the other end of Discord... that was worse.

So she took a deep breath, tapped the number, and held the phone to her ear.

It rang once. Twice.

Her voice trembled when the operator answered. "Hi... um... I think the power’s out in my unit. I don’t know if it’s just me or the whole building." She bit her lip. "I don’t usually... do this kind of thing. Can you help?"