Elias had watched that clip a thousand times, looking for a reflection in the water or a glitch in the lens. But every time he hit play, he saw the same thing: the moment the world felt a little less empty. He hadn't told anyone about the light, or the way the silence afterward felt like a question he wasn't ready to answer.
He closed the laptop, the blue light of the screen fading from his tired eyes. Outside his window, it was April now, but he was still trapped in those thirty-four seconds of December, waiting for the sky to break open again. 2022-12-21-19-13-34(2).mp4
It was the Winter Solstice—the longest night of the year. He remembered the air that evening was unusually still, the kind of cold that felt like it was holding its breath. He had been standing on the edge of the old pier, the dark water of the Atlantic churning below like liquid obsidian. Elias had watched that clip a thousand times,