They lived in a house without any windows. Maybe you think that’s impossible because you’ve never seen a house with no windows. The architect who built that house must have been drunk when he made the blueprint because he simply forgot to include windows in his plans. When they visited the house for the first time, they didn’t notice it either. You would think that the absence of windows is something that you would notice right away, but what if you’re used to darkness? They worked night shifts and slept through the day. Therefore, they had forgotten what the light of day looked like inside a house. They had to move from their current house because the land had been bought to build a mall. Her parents didn’t really care anyways. They didn’t care for light, design, architecture, or furniture. None of those things mattered to them. They didn’t even notice these things, but she did notice them and she couldn’t believe they were forcing her out. She thought their house was perfect. She often took naps on the kitchen floor, soaked in the afternoon light.
On the day they moved in, she stepped inside the house for the first time and noticed their mistake right away. This house was filled with darkness, bathed in artificial lighting. It felt like the inside of a computer. It felt like being a 9 to 5 worker in a neon nightmare office: jailed inside an LED-lit prison. She couldn’t believe it. How could they not notice? She quickly went around the place, stepping inside each room. Every time: four walls and no opening, not the slightest slither of light coming through any of the cement walls. That’s when it hit her. They had just moved into a jail. Tears came to her eyes. She ran her hands down the never-ending cement walls, trying to fully take it in. She then asked her parents why they chose a house with no windows. Her mother raised an eyebrow surprised. She did a little spin to look around and answered ‘Oh, you’re right. I guess there are no windows.' Her father’s answer was even more alarming. He said this was a great opportunity for them, they would be able to sleep throughout the day without waking up a single time. Her parents’ schedule had always deeply bothered her. The silence of the house during the day felt dreadful. She was always roaming alone, living alone, constantly waiting for them to wake up just so that she would have someone to talk to for a few minutes before it was her turn to sleep. She was still too young to go out by herself and the house was her whole world. In the previous house, the windows had been her only glimpse of liveliness. She would sit in front and watch people pass by, walk their dogs, carry their grocery bags. She felt less lonely. In this new house, there would be no more signs of an outside world. No more reason to believe she wasn’t alone. She would become the only survivor of an apocalypse.
The first night ended and the first day came by. She woke up dreading it, while her parents peacefully went to sleep. She spent the entire day on the doorsteps. It felt good to see the sunlight. The second day, she felt like laying on the couch. So she spent the day in the living room, with the front door open. A week went by and the front door was kept open every single day. At the end of the week, she wanted to be in her bedroom. For the first time since they had moved in, she spent a whole day without sunlight, laying on her bed, tanning under the neon light of her ceiling. A few days went by like this. She was getting lazier and lazier, and didn’t feel like opening the front door anymore. The light inside the house would have to suffice. As the days went by, she became a little bit paler.
A month went by. Then another. She hadn’t seen the sunlight for a total of 64 days now. And she was slowly starting to forget about it. For her, there was no longer any difference between neon light and sunlight. All the days looked the same. Same temperature. Same actions. Same spaces. No people. She was living the same day over and over again. She was like a hamster caught in a loop, unable to get out of the loop or even notice that she is on a loop. She had become a prisoner of her own house. It had locked her in and emptied her of any desire to be part of the outside world. She had become fully self-sufficient, an entire ecosystem by herself. Her parents, caught in their daily routine, didn’t notice the change in her. Her face was now translucid, and if you looked closely you could see the purple veins under her skin. The lack of sunshine had damaged her as if she had aged a few years in a few months. She had entered this house a teenager and had turned into a zombie.
But one day, all of a sudden, she woke up. She was laying on her bed as usual, watching the ceiling fan turn, when… DIIIINNG. She jumped, as if someone had just hit her on the head. She looked around, stunned to hear an unusual sound disrupt her repetitive life. What was this? She had never heard it before. DIIIING. It seemed like it was coming from the living room. She got up and slowly started walking, following the alien sound that kept on playing over and over again. Once she stood in the living room, she realized: it was the doorbell. She had never heard this doorbell. She didn’t even know this house had a doorbell. She stood in front of the door for a few seconds, staring at it. Simply listening to the sound. She was at a loss, unable to take any decision, however small it may be, as if all the wires in her brain had been shut off for too long. She finally decided to open the door.
A girl her age was standing on the front porch. She had curly hair and glasses. She was her friend but she didn’t recognize her at first. The girl said: ‘Julie?’
Julie stayed silent, looking at her friend, mouth agape, trying to find the words.
- Julie… are you okay?
Julie answered, confused: ‘Yes…I’m fine'.
- I just wanted to check on you, school started a week ago and no one knew where you were…
In a spontaneous movement of relief, her friend hugged her. It was as if Julie had been shocked with electricity. This was the first human contact she had felt in months… slowly, little by little, her brain started to activate again.
Julie stepped out on her front porch and looked straight into the sunlight. She looked into it as long as she could, until her eyes felt completely blinded. At that moment she knew that she needed to escape.