It was the hush that woke her. Not a noise, but the absence of one—the soft click of a lock, the sigh of a floorboard that had just been stepped on and had settled back into place. Maya’s eyes snapped open in the blue-dark of her studio apartment. She didn’t move. Her breath, shallow and controlled, fogged the air. The heater had clicked off an hour ago.
So she couldn’t let him get near her face.
She saw the shadow first—a thickening of the dark by her window, which she could have sworn she’d locked. The figure was patient. He held a small brown bottle and a folded white handkerchief. He was waiting for her to fall back asleep.
“No,” she said, her voice flat. “But I am.”
Silence. Real silence this time. No breathing. No movement.
It was the hush that woke her. Not a noise, but the absence of one—the soft click of a lock, the sigh of a floorboard that had just been stepped on and had settled back into place. Maya’s eyes snapped open in the blue-dark of her studio apartment. She didn’t move. Her breath, shallow and controlled, fogged the air. The heater had clicked off an hour ago.
So she couldn’t let him get near her face.
She saw the shadow first—a thickening of the dark by her window, which she could have sworn she’d locked. The figure was patient. He held a small brown bottle and a folded white handkerchief. He was waiting for her to fall back asleep.
“No,” she said, her voice flat. “But I am.”
Silence. Real silence this time. No breathing. No movement.
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