And yes, he did hear it. He heard it too. In the walls, in the rafters, surrounding him, all over.

Tick-tick. Tick-tick

He shook his head, trying to clear it. “That’s what you never told me,” he said dully—his voice came to him as if from the other end of a tunnel. “That’s what was missing from your story. You never told me what was making that noise.”

Sophia seemed not to hear him. “It’s just the same,” she repeated.

And the sound repeated: Tick-tick. Tick-tick

Storm took a faltering step towards her. Maybe this was it, he thought. Maybe he was actually dying right this minute. Maybe he was slipping away from the real world into his own fantasies. Maybe that’s what dying would be like: maybe only your dreams remained.

“What was it, Sophia?” he said again, forcing the words. “That night you saw your father fighting with your mother—the blood—what was it that was making that noise?”

Sophia made a quick gesture of denial, refusal. The fear in her eyes was turning to panic.

“Where’s Daddy?” she said. “Where is he? Do you think he’s all right?”

A noise broke from between Storm’s teeth as a hot flash of pain went up one side of his head. He pressed the heels of his palms to his brow. He remembered that feeling of alienation out by the ruin, and he thought: Not now. He couldn’t go under now. He had to hold on, by force of will. He had to stay with her.

Tick-tick. Tick-tick.

“I’ll find him,” he said. He felt he almost had to shout over that quiet, rhythmic tapping. He felt sick. He felt the cold sweat breaking out all over him. “It’s all right. I’ll go find him.”

He marched, with more boldness than he felt, across the room to the door. He threw it open. The action seemed to jar his mind clear, seemed to bring him back to himself a little. He stood confronting the dark of the hallway. Listening, waiting for the sound to repeat.

Sophia hurried to him, took his arm. “Is someone out there?”

He looked down at her. “It’s all right,” he said more firmly.

They stepped out into the hall together.

The sound seemed to have ceased. The hall was still. The whole house was still around them. Storm felt his way along the wall as they moved through the shadows, as they moved beneath the stares of the portraits hanging above them.