***Trigger Warning: This chapter contains discussions of depression, grief, and intrusive thoughts of suicide. While no explicit actions are taken, the themes explored may be distressing for some readers. If you are struggling, please reach out to someone you trust or seek professional support—you are not alone.***
By the time I got home, I felt… nothing. Not relief. Not exhaustion. Not even pain, but I knew it was there, lurking beneath the surface... waiting like a shark to grab me and tear me under again.
I closed the front door quietly behind me, my body moving on autopilot. My aunt and uncle weren’t home yet. Maybe they were still out at brunch. Maybe they’d decided to go somewhere afterward. Maybe they’d been hit by a f*****g bus.
Didn’t matter.
I dragged myself upstairs, every s
