11:30pm

Emma sighed, watching the grandfather’s clock in the cabin’s sitting room. It was just thirty minutes to go.

She looked around the room, inhaling the smell of the antiseptic she had used to clean the house, to wash every corner of the house, to get rid of the smell of despair, and medicines and coma.

She sunk deeper into the sofa and flexed her hands. She didn’t know why she had cleaned it. In hope of her mother returning? Emma wasn’t sure.

She looked at her hands, and flexed her fingers again. She, who had never cleaned. She chuckled dryly at herself. Where had she even gotten the initiative...