Smallara

Charity awoke to a gentle, persistent trembling that shivered through her entire body. Her eyes snapped open in confusion, the darkness around her absolute, disorienting. A surge of momentary panic…

The fabric bag slumped heavily in the corner next to the grand, towering door, its plaid-patterned cloth pooling and folding over itself in lazy, inviting waves. Each crease and ridge…

Charity remained huddled on the floor, her body folded against the cold, polished wood like a fragile origami figure. Minutes bled into hours, or maybe days, time had ceased to…

Charity sat slumped at the halfway point of the stairs, legs splayed, chest rising and falling with exertion. Sweat clung to her temples in sticky beads. The carpet fibers that…

Charity stood at the precipice, her toes brushing the lip of the first step, and gazed down the long wooden slope that unfurled before her like a sheer cliff face.…

The Roomba had long vanished down the hallway, its soft hum now just a whisper somewhere behind her, but Charity remained pressed against the baseboard crevice, her back tight to…