The girl who waited

The silence became her closest companion. It followed her everywhere—in the empty hallways, in the quiet nights, in the spaces between words that were never spoken.

She wanted to scream, to break the stillness that surrounded her, but even that felt pointless. Who would listen? Who would care?

She tested it one evening at dinner. She barely touched her food, staring blankly at her plate. Her parents talked about their day, her sibling laughed at something on their phone. No one noticed her silence.

So she stayed quiet.

And just like that, she became invisible, her presence reduced to nothing more than an echo—one that no one seemed to hear.