It was Ben who noticed first, turning the bathroom faucet and getting nothing but a dry, rattling groan from the pipes for his trouble.
"That's new," he said, trying it again, then the shower, then the kitchen sink, all three producing the exact same hollow, useless sound.
"What's new?" Aunt Lucy called from the kitchen.
"No water. None of the taps are working."
Aunt Mary appeared in the doorway a moment later, Aurora balanced on her hip, frowning as she tried the kitchen faucet herself and found the same dry silence waiting. "That's strange. We had pressure yesterday."
"We had pressure this morning," Penelope said, emerging from her own room, already sensing the shift in the household's energy. "I showered before the supply run."
Erik crossed the penthouse in quick, purposeful strides, trying every tap he passed along the way — bathroom, kitchen, the small utility sink near the laundry — all of them yielding nothing.
