The house was dark. Outside the wind picked up in gusts that slammed the siding and blasted sheets of rain against the windows. Flashes of lightning broke the darkness into jagged shadows in the bedroom. Tom fell asleep listening to the hum and creaks of the house and the rain outside and he dreamed.

He dreamed he was in a room with no doors. A small square window high and out of his reach was the only way to the outside world. The gray glow of the moon casting a shaft of light to the middle of the room broke up the darkness. Tom sat on a bench along the wall with the window. The bench went from corner to corner around the entire room. People sat beside him and all around. Some were faceless, others were people that he knew, and yet there were more he did not know.

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