The world outside was still black when the man awoke. Heavy curtains draped over the cold expanse of glass, separating the outside from what lay within, and in the darkness, the man tossed restlessly. Shifting traces of light snuck beneath the door, beckoning him to wakefulness; he opened a single eye to glare blearily at the seeping white light. What he wouldn’t give to sleep again, to slide back into the nothingness… to dream of birds whose beaks were tied shut with ribbon and bodies bound with silver wires. He frowned. Birds? Even as he thought it, the crisp edges of a little blue wren seemed to materialise out of…