Shadows and First Blood
By the end of the third week, Silver had learned the rhythm of the house:
the morning coffee he brewed exactly at seven,
the sound of the front door latch at eight,
the soft scrape of metal when he thought she was asleep—guns, maybe, or knives being counted.
When he was gone, the place exhaled. She could almost hear it—walls stretching, air uncoiling.
She’d use those hours to wander from room to room, pretending it was hers. Pretending she wasn’t cataloguing exits.
Her reflection had started to look unfamiliar: skin paler, eyes dulled, mouth too still. Even the cat from the alley—her accidental rescue—wouldn’t come inside anymore. Animals knew when a space had gone bad.
The first time he sna
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