Chapter 3 – Trapped in Her Own Storm

One stormy afternoon, Lucille traps Ernest in the attic for scratching her favorite slippers. She mocks his frightened mews from behind the locked door, laughing as thunder rattles the shutters. But that night, everything changed.

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Chapter 4 – Trapped in Her Own Storm

As lightning slashed across the sky, the house creaked in strange protest. Lucille’s door wouldn’t open. Her phone wouldn’t work. And when she peered through the window—there was no street, no yard… only swirling fog. Cold crept in. Hunger set in. Hours stretched out like days. Then she noticed something etched into the mirror’s frost: “Now you know.”

Ernest was watching from the shadows. This time, it was Lucille who was trapped.

Feather Note: The attic inversion is a taste of Lucille’s own medicine. Her environment begins echoing her choices—an eerie morality loop. The message in the mirror hints that Ernest isn’t just a cat…he might be a keeper of balance.