Quiet and hurt

They ask me— “Why are you so quiet these days?” My reply— Because I was hurt by this cruel world, where dreams break faster than glass, where every step forward feels like walking on thorns, where truth is buried under lies, and innocence is taken as weakness. I hurt my parents, who thought I was fully mature at the age of twelve, but inside, I was just a child still searching for light. I am hurt by my fate, that laughs at me when I try to rise, that writes struggles in every page of my story, yet never hands me peace. I am hurt because no one understands my thoughts, no one sees the battles inside me, and when I try to speak, it feels like my voice is lost before it reaches anyone. I am quiet… because silence feels safer than words, because pain echoes louder inside than outside, because maybe, just maybe, this silence is the only thing I can truly call mine. Because silence, at least, does not lie.