Brooklyn didn’t back away.

She screamed a second time, louder than the first, her small chest heaving under her pajamas.

The red light on the central desk in the main pod started flashing in time with the room unit.

Two sets of quick, heavy footsteps clicked across the tile near the elevator bank down the hall.

In the dark family room thirty yards away, I jolted upright on the narrow pullout bed.

My eyes snapped open to the dim gray light from the courtyard window.