Chapter 3: Undressed Accidents
The hours since breakfast have been a blur of forced normalcy, a fragile truce in a silent war. He tries to maintain his sanity. He retreats to his room, blasting music through headphones, the thumping bass a physical barrier against the intrusive thoughts. He tries to focus on unpacking, on arranging his meager belongings in a new, unfamiliar space. But she is not making it easy for him. Every creak of the floorboards outside his door, every distant murmur of voices, sends a jolt of anxiety through him, a jolt that is both unwelcome and strangely thrilling. He clutches a worn paperback, attempting to lose himself in its pages, but the words blur, meaningless. His focus is fractured, his mind a battlefield where rational thought is constantly under siege.
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