The living room was dark.
It was heavy, absolute dark. The curtains were drawn tight against the gray afternoon, and no lamps had been switched on. The only illumination came from the tall windows on one side of the wall, a cold, wet gray seeping through the glass, casting long shadows that stretched across the marble floor.
Outside, rain poured. It hammered against the window in relentless sheets, streaking the glass with rivers of silver that blurred the view into nothing but shapeless light and shadow.
The sound filled the room, a low, constant drumming that swallowed every other noise, that seeped into the walls and the furniture and the bones.
It was cold. The heating system was left off for too long, and the man had stopped noticing temperature altogether. He was sitting on the single armchair facing the window, but the leather had gone stiff with the chill.
