[COMPLETED BUT WONT LET ME PRESS THE COMPLETED BUTTON AHAHHA]
Aurora Lockheart was once the sunshine girl-bright, kind, and full of life. But one night changed everything, leaving her a shadow of who she used to be.
A year later, just as she's be...
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The walk home from the cemetery was a blur. My legs moved on their own, like I was on autopilot, but my mind was somewhere else—still back there, with him. My cheeks stung from the cold wind, but I was too drained to care anymore. I had cried until there was nothing left.
When I opened the front door, something was off. It was only 7:30, but the house felt... wrong. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that makes you uneasy. Usually, there'd be some sound—my brother's music playing from his room, the TV murmuring in the background—but tonight, nothing. Just silence.
I kicked off my shoes, not bothering to turn on any lights. The darkness felt fitting. I dragged myself up the stairs, my hand brushing against the wall to steady me. I could still feel the dampness under my eyes, my face tight from dried tears.
I don't even know why I went to my brother's room. Maybe it was instinct, maybe I just couldn't stand being alone in my own head anymore. His door was slightly open, and I slipped inside.
The air in there was stale, but familiar. His bed was unmade, blankets twisted in a mess like he'd left in a hurry. I didn't bother cleaning it up. Instead, I just collapsed onto the mattress, burying my face in his pillow. It smelled like him, like safety. Like everything I couldn't reach.
My mind was spinning, but I couldn't stop it. I didn't want to. God knows how much I'd had—enough to blur the edges, to make the pain fade, even just for a little while. Drunk, high, out of it. All of it at once. I couldn't even tell where one feeling started and the other ended.
I just knew I couldn't do it anymore. The grief, the guilt, the emptiness—it was too much. I give up.
Lying there in the dark, in his room, I let myself drift. I didn't know what time it was now or if it even mattered. The world outside felt far away. All I knew was that I didn't have the strength to face it.
I closed my eyes, sinking deeper into the haze, hoping it would swallow me whole.
