I finished the eggs.
She watched me do it like she was supervising a hostage negotiation, and when the plate was empty she took it to the sink and washed it herself instead of leaving it for whoever came down next. That was the thing about Natalia. She'd threaten to freeze your organs and then wash your dishes in the same ten minutes.
"Sit there," she said. "Do not move."
"I've been sitting for four minutes."
"Sit for forty."
She left the kitchen. I heard her go up the stairs, heard the third step creak the way it always did, heard a door open and shut.
Then I was alone with the burnt coffee smell and three thousand six hundred and ninety seven red dots burned into the inside of my skull.
