SCREAM - as another soul took an impromptu flying lesson. This is how dignity dies.

Her heart hammered as she watched grown men tumble like children’s toys. Not exactly the refined evening I planned.

The world had become a carnival of chaos, each strobe flash revealing new acrobatics. Find them. Before someone starts singing sea shanties.

Then the world tilted sideways as strong arms swept her off her feet. She caught a flash of Sophia beside her, both of them suddenly airborne, carried above the mayhem like they weighed nothing at all. Through the confusion, she recognized Daniel’s cologne, the solid warmth of his chest against her side. He moved through the chaos cooler than some kind of bose condensate, his long legs finding impossible paths between the brawling masses.

They burst through a loading dock door and into the night air, Daniel’s momentum carrying them in a graceful arc. For a moment, they were suspended against the backdrop of the impossible wolf moon, its light painting everything in shades of blue and 5000k. Then gravity remembered them, and they half-stumbled, half-floated down to earth, Daniel setting them both on their feet with gentle precision.