Silence

Roaming the silent halls, the bell split the air— I ran to my class, but found only absence staring back. Then—rupture. No corridors. No noise. Just the edge of my bed and the weight of wasted years. My shadow grew into me, a second self I could not escape, still holding a promise I buried alive long ago. The road ahead— not kind, not gentle— calls me forward. And somewhere, by a patient river, she waits— as if time never learned to move. I do not know if I will reach her, or if she was ever real.