-Julien Grayson:
I sat there for a moment after he said it.
"You smell like one."
The words settled into the quiet kitchen and stayed there, hanging between us like something unfinished.
I stared at him.
He stared back.
Neither of us moved.
The morning light creeping through the small window had grown a little stronger now, spreading slowly across the wooden floorboards. It caught the edge of the table and the stool beneath me, lighting up the carved grain in the wood and the tiny imperfections where someone had shaped it by hand.
The house was quiet.
Too quiet.
The only sounds were the faint creak of the wooden structure and the soft crackle coming from somewhere in the kitchen, probably a dying fire in a stove or oven.
My stomach reminded me again that it was empty.
The bread was still in my hand.
