Lying awake, Aditya felt the weight of exhaustion pressing on him, but there was no way to shut out the cacophony. The storm, the rattling roof, and the never-ending alarms made it feel like the night itself was against them. Every time the sound seemed to fade, another alarm would trigger, jolting him out of the brief moments when he thought he could drift off.
It was a long, sleepless night. The water continued to pour into the house, creeping closer to where they had retreated. The oppressive air was thick with humidity, and the house itself groaned under the weight of the floodwater. The minutes stretched into hours, and by the time the sky began to lighten, Aditya hadn’t slept a wink.