It started at two in the morning.
I heard it through the walls. A sound that was not quite right. Not loud. Just different from the usual sounds the house made at night. I was awake immediately in the complete way that certain sounds pull you up from sleep before your mind has caught up with what it heard.
I got up.
The corridor was dark. I went to Helena's door and listened.
Her breathing. Uneven. The particular quality of someone in discomfort trying not to make noise about it.
I knocked softly. "Helena."
Nothing for a moment.
Then, "I am fine."
She was not fine. I could hear it.
I opened the door.
The lamp on her bedside table was on. She was sitting up against her pillows with one hand pressed flat against her chest and her face doing something careful and controlled that tol
