Her uncle lay on a small bed in the bare room. It looked as though the light too had chosen to distance itself from him, casting its shadows all around the room, but only in the part where her uncle lay.
His once-strong frame was now frail and weakened by illness. Sophie's breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of him. There was nothing left of the man she once knew. She could barely recognise the skeleton of the man that lay before her as that of her uncle.
She still remembered him. His huge weight, which shook the building when he walked, had been blessed with height and muscles, a chest, and thick legs, but now all she saw were scattered bones laid out carefully on the bed and fading skin.
Wisps of his hair flew about on his head, and his eyes could barely open as th
