Chapter 5
The Staring Contest
Selly spends hours staring out the window, especially at night. Emily joins her, her gaze fixed on the darkness outside, as if waiting for something or someone.
The sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in hues of bruised purple and fiery orange, but inside Sally’s house, a different kind of twilight was settling. It wasn't the gentle fading of day; it was a creeping, deliberate dimness that seemed to emanate from the corners of rooms, from the spaces beneath furniture, and from the very air itself. Sally watched Emily, her heart giving a familiar, uneasy flutter. Her daughter, usually a whirlwind of giggles and bright ideas, sat by the living room window, her small back rigid, her face pressed close to the cool glass.
It had started subtly, these long vigils. At first, Sally had dismissed it as a child’s fascination with the changing world outside. Emily would point at squirrels scampering up trees, at the way the streetlights flickered on, at the first stars pricking the darkening sky. But lately, the focus had shifted. Emily’s gaze wasn’t just curious; it was fixed, intense, as if she were locked in some silent, drawn-out staring contest with the night.
And Selly, Selly was always there. Not visible to Sally, of course, but Emily would whisper about her, her voice a hushed, reverent sound. “Selly likes to watch the dark,” Emily would murmur, her eyes never leaving the window. “She says the dark holds secrets.”
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