Ethan
There are things you recognize without seeing them. The tone of a voice, a silence, a breath. A breakdown… and when I hear Clara… I know.
Something is wrong. Very wrong.
"Ethan..."
It is not her voice, not the same as always. Not the one I know.
It's another... a broken, fragile, unarmed one and that... It goes straight through me.
"Clara, what's going on?"
She doesn't respond right away, just... Cry. And that sound... It takes the air out of me.
"There's someone," she says between sobs, "there was someone..."
The world literally stops.
I don't think, I don't analyze. I don't ask anymore, I act.
My whole day was fine, just until that moment.
"Where are you?"
"At home..."
That's all I need.
"Don't move."
Short, not because I want to. Because if I keep listening to her
