White, in a silver frame. Window in the middle. Slit for the news from the outside, just halfway between the top and bottom pane. Silver lock on the left. Rusted chain just below. I touch its cold surface, pull it through the loop. Check the pin of the lock, push it down. Pull on the chain. Step back, close the curtain, shut the light from the outside. The hallway is dark now and I am protected. The material is not thick enough to stop the cold, but it stops the demons lurking outside from seeing in. I switch off the light and I turn around, turn around. Walk away.

But today is the day when I need to open the curtain, let the light flood the four walls, the doors, the cabinet on the left, the bowl for change, the panic alarm. I pull the sleek material across, and the light attacks me. I squint, measuring the outside through the glass carefully. I reach to the silver lock, open it with a loud click. I slide the chain out of the loop with a metallic rattle. Something in my chest rattles as well when I step back. I look at the white silver frame, suddenly paper-thin. I feel the cold of the outside on my face. I am exposed even though the slit in the door is not ticker than my thumb. If something looked in, it could see my belly, soft tissue that rips to shreds with ease, under any clawed hand or paw. I turn around, turn around. Walk away.

Until I cannot. Until I need to stay, when the door opens, when the lock clicks, when the floor squeaks under their feet. The chain from the door elongates, suddenly wrapping around my chest, keeping me in place. They walk in, leaving marks on the wood, admiring the cabinet on the left, the bowl for change, the panic alarm. I want to reach for it, but I cannot. I have not in the past, how could I now? And nothing separates us now. Not the curtain, nor the window, nor the white, in the silver frame. The space that was once my own, does not belong to me anymore. It is taken over, turned from a room into a hellway.

I turn around and see them round the table. They do not even need to open their mouths.

I know they came through to get fed.