It was unexplainable. The moment John’s voice echoed the words ‘Kent is dead,’ something inside me cracked wide open — not neatly, but like a ribcage torn apart by bare hands.
At first, I didn’t react. I couldn’t. But slowly, like a rotten wall collapsing, I began to shatter and sink. I did not even remember what I said to John. Maybe I spoke no words because if I had opened my mouth, the scream crawling up my throat would have swallowed the whole room, John included.
I was never as close to Kent as Nicholas, but for some reason, the news of his death broke me. Perhaps, it was due to the accumulated trauma my therapist could not solve.
The hours that followed blurred into t*****e. I remembered the walls spinning and the clawing of something on my skin as if I could dig the unexpected gr
