But the house wasn't done. A pale, elongated face appeared in the strobe-like flicker of Sarah’s dying phone screen—a face with too many teeth and eyes like sunken pits. It wasn't a ghost; it was something older, something that fed on the very time they were trying to steal. At ninety minutes, the screaming started.

A door slammed upstairs, the sound sharp as a gunshot. They froze.

Panic set in at seventy-five minutes. The house began to breathe—a low, wet rasp that vibrated through the floorboards. The temperature plummeted, their breath turning to mist. One by one, their flashlights flickered and died, leaving them in a darkness so absolute it felt physical.