reasoning it out. We moved fast, throwing our things together without
folding clothes, without turning lights off, without stopping to think. I shoved the cover from the detector into my pocket, and we rushed outside.
The night felt different now. Darker. The trees around the house seemed to press in closer, and the silence no longer felt peaceful. As we left, I looked back once and thought I saw movement inside, a shift in the shadows, though I never looked long enough to be sure. We got into the
