The passage upstairs
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
The passage upstairs had always seemed short. Tonight, with the candle trembling in her hand, Mary found that each familiar door appeared farther away than it should. She had been sent to collect a shawl from the empty bedroom. At the final door, a draught extinguished the flame. Darkness made a stranger of the house. She stood still, listening, until her brother called from the landing.
Identify the sentence which suggests that the familiar house now feels unfamiliar.