Sleep came back heavy that morning.... thick, dark, and bottomless, like sinking into water too deep to reach the surface. No dreams. No thoughts. Just silence and exhaustion swallowing me whole.
After that talk with Isabella about Don Smith, about jobs, decisions, and everything else that made my chest feel like it was caving in, I couldn’t take another word. My brain had simply… shut off. I remember mumbling something about needing rest, about how I just wanted to sleep, and rolling over to face the wall.
“Same,” she had muttered sleepily, already halfway gone.
“Kay’s call messed up my sleep. It’s still early anyway.”
That was the last thing I heard before the world faded out again.
When I woke up, it felt like hours had passed, maybe more. The air in the room was heavy, still carr
