The Smell of a Hard Shift
At two in the morning I woke to an empty bed.
The house was silent except for running water in the master bathroom.
I crept down the hall.
The door was ajar, spilling a thin slice of pale light across the floor, and when I looked in, my breath caught.
Bethany was standing at the sink — asleep.
Her eyes were open but entirely vacant, glassed over and elsewhere.