( december 8th )

[firegap]

On the dining table, a single candelabra has been left alight, five small flames the only guard against the shadows filling the room. It's past midnight. The paper in front of her is blank, until she puts her pen to it and writes the first sentence.

Where are you?

The chalkboards are bound together with string, front to front, a hard parcel left off to the side, out of reach. When Caroline leans over for them and loosens the knot, revealing the insides, a word has appeared in childlike handwriting.

Here.

She asks again, where are you? Four times. The same answer. Finally, Caroline Becker who does not awaken the dead unwraps the chalkboards and smashes them on the floor with a scream.