The bird clock ticks louder with Amun gone. The creaks and thumps of the neighbor's feet make me jump in the dim apartment. The place seemed so cozy with him here but now the blacked-out window of the bedroom and the stranger’s furniture simply seems run down.

There’s no place to go. The last time I left this place alone, it ended in a haunting violence that turns my stomach just to think of it. To pass the time, I practice telekinesis, a nice, harmless form of magic that ...