TO: THE SECOND FIGURE
FROM: THE LANE ITSELF
RE: THIS EVENING, ONGOING
You are expected.
Arrive unhurried.
The porch light has been briefed.
Trees on either side: noted, cooperative.
The gate latch: already lifted.
One candle in the window: confirmed lit.
The letterbox will not require your name.
Please follow the arm.
Everything behind you
was always the dark that made
the corridor possible.
Do not reply to this message.
Just come through.
You are the porch light at the end of the lane โ hold yourself steady while the dark presses in from both sides, because two people are navigating entirely by you and one of them is about to lose their nerve.