In the ear­ly morn­ing, at half-past three, the pro­tag­o­nist, Leighton, is jolt­ed awake by the creak of her bed­room door, surg­ing fear cours­ing through her as rem­nants of a night­mare linger. She reas­sures her­self that it was just a bad dream — her sis­ters are safe, and her moth­er is okay. Just then, her younger sis­ter Juniper appears, seek­ing com­fort amidst the unset­tling nois­es from out­side the room. Leighton encour­ages her to climb into bed.

How­ev­er, the muf­fled voic­es from down­stairs con­tin­ue to dis­turb her, indi­cat­ing a brew­ing ten­sion. Juniper, feel­ing rest­less, opts to play a game called “Any­where But Here,” a form of men­tal escape from the dis­tress out­side. As they begin to set­tle in, the old­er sis­ter Camp­bell reluc­tant­ly joins in, reflect­ing the heavy mood in the room.

As they engage in their imag­i­na­tive game, where they describe idyl­lic places like the Galá­pa­gos Islands and Lon­don, the atmos­phere is dis­rupt­ed by a loud crash down­stairs, abrupt­ly height­en­ing their fear. They instinc­tive­ly hud­dle clos­er, with Juniper near­ly chok­ing back a cry. Real­iz­ing that the dis­trac­tion isn’t enough, they seek refuge in their grandmother’s armoire, stash­ing away items to cre­ate a cozy hide­out. Leighton retrieves a kerosene lantern, rem­i­nis­cent of their grand­fa­ther’s, and lights it, illu­mi­nat­ing their small sanc­tu­ary.

Inside the cramped space, they cre­ate shad­ow pup­pets, their laughs and imag­i­na­tions momen­tar­i­ly replac­ing the fear creep­ing in from out­side. Leighton recalls how their father taught her this game long ago when nights were filled with sim­pler fears. The sis­ters, lost in their play­ful shadows—puppeteering ani­mals on the wall—find solace in their tem­po­rary world amidst the loom­ing threat out­side.

How­ev­er, as the flick­er­ing lantern light dims and the real­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion returns, Leighton remains alert, stead­fast in ensur­ing her sis­ters feel safe. She blows out the lantern’s flame, plung­ing them back into dark­ness while they silent­ly face the uncer­tain­ty that chal­lenges their sanctuary—a tes­ta­ment to their unyield­ing bond in the face of adver­si­ty.