The air in the living room was thick with the scent of overpriced cologne and cheap tequila. It was 10:00 PM, and for a brief moment, the "Party of the Year" lived up to its name. The music was a steady pulse, the crowd was a blur of neon, and laughter echoed through the hallway of Leo’s parents’ house.
The first sign of the impending disaster wasn’t a crash or a scream, but a silence. At 10:30 PM, the DJ’s speakers gave out with a pathetic, electric wheeze. In the sudden quiet, the sound of a shattering vase—a family heirloom from the Ming Dynasty, according to Leo’s panicked face—rang out like a gunshot.
From there, the evening descended into a domino effect of misfortune. Trying to fix the mood, someone attempted a "living room bonfire" in the fireplace without opening the flue. Within minutes, the ceiling fans were slicing through grey ribbons of smoke, and the smoke detector began its rhythmic, piercing shriek.
