Ava’s Shadow

Julia — First-Person POV

Something was wrong before I opened my eyes.

The apartment had a particular quality of silence that I had learned to distinguish — the silence of early morning when the building was simply still, and the silence of something else. The silence of a space that had been entered and hadn't finished telling you yet.

My eyes opened.

Pale light through the curtains. The ceiling above me unchanged. The room exactly as I had left it.

And yet.

I sat up slowly.

My hand went to my s