The night came in quiet and heavy.
A low hum from the ocean seeped through the windows, blending with the soft ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway. Andrea lingered in the kitchen long after dinner was done, drying the same plate three times. She wasn’t stalling, she was surviving.
The house had gone quiet hours ago. The kind of quiet that made every small sound feel amplified, deliberate. A clock ticked somewhere in the distance, the faint hum of the refrigerator underscoring it like a metronome.
Andrea stood by the counter, the only light coming from the stove hood, a dim, amber glow that left the edges of the room in shadow. Her hair was loose now, falling down her back, and her fingers rested on the rim of a coffee mug she hadn’t touched in minutes.
The day had dragged b
