StoryVerse〔17〕

Look Around

The gossamer spun of pale illumination slowly dissipates as your eyes adjust to the dim LED lights. Frozen in the abrupt silence, an unfamiliar chill creeps into your bare feet from a tiled floor, and your short, jagged breath beats a syncopated rhythm with the tick-tock of a nearby clock. Squinting, you see the shadowy image of an empty whisky bottle hugging a wilted tulip next to a light switch, and you realize, while similar, this is not your kitchen.

Do you turn on the light or check out the clock in the next room?

〔⍺〕〔go back〕〔turn on light〕〔check out clock〕

Brian writes Standing in Doorways, a newsletter dedicated to essays and stories of lingering in those spaces on the margins and along the edges, where decisions build character and challenge notions of access and separation.