Stanley Thomson

ANNA

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CHAPTER 1

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At first, Anna thought it was a lawn mower, far off somewhere over the rooftops. A thin, mechanical buzzing drifted through the air and vanished, leaving only silence.

 

Then it returned - louder, sharper - circling above the town like an angry swarm of insects. Anna likened it to a banshee she had heard about in early Ukrainian fairy tales. The fear within her grew with the intensity of the approaching sound and she also recalled, from those fables, that the sound was believed to herald death. The sound pressed against the walls, vibrating through the floor. A cold certainty sank into her chest.

 

The buzzing sharpened, straining now, directly above her building. Dust trembled from the ceiling. She looked up, and in that instant, everything tipped: the drone had found its target. The roar escalated into a violent, metallic scream. The world split open. A deafening blast slammed Anna and her sister Olesya, backward, lights vanishing, walls shuddering. Glass exploded inward; concrete crumbled beneath her. For a heartbeat, there was only darkness and choking dust. Somewhere nearby, metal screamed, and debris collapsed. Ears rang; bodies froze, caught between shock and instinct.