[Mother has gone away. The Colony is full of ghosts. They play tricks on Chloe, rustling toffee wrappers and leaving the bathroom tap running. They run through each room ahead of her, so that no matter where she goes, she is always struck by loss. They fill every empty space. They are everywhere.
She hopes mother hurries back to shoo them away.
(Mother will never hurry back)
All she wants is to enter the library-- that mythopoeic place from which she is banned. She tried, scanning her PDD at the door. Today, as every day, the scanner emits a low buzz and refuses her entry. Chloe sits. Watching the door, unmoving. Her bare, earth coated feet curl up at the toes. They're a little cold, but she feels so much more grounded without shoes.
The time drags itself by her on rickety legs, and she has the vaguest notion that she should be somewhere else. Washing dishes, or mopping floors, or... the miasma dissipates from her eyes, bidden by the sound of a footstep. It had been so quiet, before. Chloe twitches, fingers shaking as she glances at the newcomer, looking quite adroitly between their eyes and not into them.] Are you going in there? Into the library? [She wouldn't hurt anyone. She only wants to look up the phases of the moon in the coming months, because she can hardly cleanse the air around her if she doesn't know what's waxing and what's waning.]