All day went by, but Josh never came back after he locked me and Emma into that same room.
At first, I thought maybe he was pacing outside, thinking of what he was going to do. Then I thought maybe he was trying to isolate us by silence, but the longer the hours stretched, the clearer it became that he was gone.
Like, real gone.
The room started to feel smaller by the hour. As if the walls pressed in and the ceiling sagged lower.
With no window, only that thin strip of light coming from beneath the door. So on that glow also started to fade off second by second.
Slowly, the yellow line shrank and darkened, swallowing the corners of the room. Shadows spread like rot until the whole space was filled with soft yet hungry dark, indicating the day was slowly coming to its end.
Emma's small figure was the only warmth I had in that space. She stayed close most of the time, acting like an innocent flame trying to warm me up.
