Lux sat in her bed in the room she and Cecilia shared. She stared at the empty bed beside her.
Wrapped in silence she had yet to accustom herself to, Lux failed to notice her father's approaching footsteps. He stopped by her doorway, studying the room with a frown.
"Why did you open the window?"
Lux's shoulders jerked. She tilted her head towards the window. It gaped open, a tantalizing breeze floating in and tickling at her skin. Beckoning. Luring.
"I don't know."
Her father left and returned with a hammer and nails. He slid the window shut, then pounded away, driving the nails deep into the sill. His pounding grew heavier, wilder. He finished, shuddering, yet managed to suppress his sobs of grief.
"Good night," he said formally to Lux, then strode out.
Lux slept.
She dreamed that Cecilia was clawing at the window, trying to get out.