"Lost in his darkness "

He carried darkness.
The kind you feel in your bones the moment you walk into a room.
But something kept pulling my focus back to him.
He stood stoic in the corner, by the fireplace that hadn't been lit
The ashes were cold.
Just like the air around him.
People moved around him Speaking in whispers.
But he didn't move. Didn't blink.
I could see it - the weight of his past haunting him.
Shadows moving behind his eyes, too fast to catch.
And for one moment, his eyes forgot how to be present.
Like his soul had stepped out and left the shell behind.
Like if I touched him, I'd touch nothing at all.
His parents were gone.
And now his younger brother too.
We were neighbors. That was all.
We were here to give condolences. To say the right words.
'I'm so sorry.'
To pretend words could fix this.
No one told me how his family died.
Only that it was haunting.
That it took everything from him in one night.
His little brother was his last piece.
And now that was taken too.
Would this troubled soul be okay?
Hadn't responded to a single person brave enough to approach him.
His jaw was tight. His hands in his pockets.
His body stood in front of us.
But his soul was long gone.
Did he ever smile?
Did he remember how to laugh, or had grief burned that out of him too?

*Would he remember me?*