The Unlit Window

What it looks like, and what it does

A terrace at night with every window glowing except one on the second floor of number nineteen. The neighbouring panes dimmed to amber. A street lamp flickering. A figure looking up.

Unlit always. Dims neighbouring panes by degrees as a person looks. Recovers when they look away.

What is known

Number 19, Sallow Terrace, has been unoccupied since 1966. The council inspected it. The second-floor room is empty.

On the street, residents avoid looking at it. Those who do find their own lamps dim and a hush in the room. The window is not dark so much as unwatched.

What it can do

• Dims neighbouring windows when looked at
• Appears occupied from outside and empty from within

Where it stops

• Cannot be seen from the far end of the street
• Is unaffected by direct light

An encounter

Burke stood in the second-floor room and saw nothing but a chair facing the window, dust disturbed on its seat. From the street, she was told, she could be seen standing at the glass, quite plainly. She says she was alone. She says she felt looked at from outside.

Lorraine Burke, council inspector, Number 19, Sallow Terrace, An inspection, 2014

What is established, and what is only said

• established: Photographs of the terrace show a window that is dark in every exposure, including long ones.
• rumor: That it was the last window to be lit on the night the street was built.
• interpretation: It may not be a window that is dark. It may be a window that is watching.

Still unresolved

The chair faces the window. Someone has been looking out.

Where it has been recorded

• Sallow Terrace (confirmed) — Recorded by Lorraine Burke, council inspector.

Stories about it

• The Unlit Window on Tenth Street (Entity story, 3 min) — One window in a lit terrace on Tenth Street is always dark, and the people who live on either side of it have learned that when they look directly at it, the lamps in the windows beside it begin to dim, one by one, until the glass goes black.

Connected entities

• Frame Four — Both are places in a lit scene where something looks back. Neither has ever been seen to move.