song of darkness | Glowfic Constellation

She puts her phone down, goes over to the fridge, and gets out a meal to microwave. For dinner.

That's probably sufficient for today. For now. Until she tells Alexandre.

It probably is.

Nobody calls her.

And it's late enough it's probably noticeable that Alexandre's father isn't yet home.

So she sits him down and breaks the news to him, trying to be gentle.

It seems like maybe it doesn't sink in, with how calmly he takes it.

She asks if he's okay, if he understands what she said. He says he gets it and he's sad, but she's probably sadder.

And so they spend a couple of hours on the sofa watching a movie together.

Her phone rings before the movie ends.

"Be back in a minute," she says, getting up off the sofa to pick the phone up.

"Hello?"

"Clarice?" her husband's voice asks.

"– Marcos?"

"Honey," he breathes. "Are you and Alexandre alright?"

"We – we're both at home, but – what happened?"

"I don't know, I—passed out, and now I'm awake again and I don't know where I am or what happened, there's no one here—"

"Are you in a room? Do you think you're in a hospital, can you find someone there?"

"I'm—"

—he goes silent. The line doesn't die, he merely stops talking in it. After a second, she can hear his phone clattering to the ground.

"– Marcos?"

No answer. Then a scream. Then silence again.

She tries louder, in case anyone can hear or is paying attention to the stupid phone.

Nope. Faint footsteps—very fast, running—then a door opens, and another scream, more distant, then the door slams shut.

She doesn't even know where he is, she can't just call the emergency services and let them know.

"Hello?" she tries, again.

Silence.

She doesn't know what else to do and it probably is an emergency – so she gets the landline and calls emergency services.

No answer.

She tries again.

Nope.

… If she looks outside her window she doesn't see some horror show, does she?

No. Not a lot of people, given the time of day, but they seem mostly normal and not horror-y.