No Shelter

The rain hadn’t let up for days. Foggy Harbor was always a dismal place, but now the fog from the harbor had wrapped around everything, turning the town into something forgotten, lost in the storm. Sarah Duvall stood at her apartment window, watching the drops gather on the cracked pane, streaking downward in uneven lines. The glass was cold under her fingertips. Somewhere, there was a draft. She could never figure out where it came from, but it was always there.

She held the bus ticket in her hand—a one-way ticket to the city. Two hours until the bus left. She should have felt relieved. She was finally leaving. But something weighed on her chest, heavy as the gray sky above. The pull of this town, the one that had swallowed her mother, felt strong, almost as strong as her need to leave.