Chapter Five, entering

He looked up at the house, just staring. He couldn't think of anything to do, so he stared, just gawked. A beat, a deep breath, a step forward. He walked toward the door, hesitant, as if the entire place would disappear if he so much as breathed too loudly. One foot in front of the other, stalling the moments until his entry. He moved close to silently, if it was night he wouldn't have been noticed. Like an assassin creeping through the shadows, he held himself as if ready to bolt, or to attack.

He barely noticed when his hand touched a solid surface, the door. The cold, hard, wood brought him out of his trance. Slowly reaching toward the knob as if it was made of glass, he opened the door. He could hear running water, some kind of scrubbing noise too. "Ma?" His voice was weak as it left his throat, cracking as he asked an unspoken question that no one heard but him. 'Are you alive?'

"Welcome home, Mundy." His mother was in her early forties, but she didn't look a day over 30. She looked nothing like what he had known her to be, all stress-worn features, and emaciated figure. "Edmund? are you okay? You spaced out." She was right in front of him, and he hadn't realised until she spoke.

His voice broke as he replied, "Yeah, I'm home, Ma."