The Weight of Silence

~VALERIE POV~

The room was too quiet.

I lay on my side, staring at the pale wall. The machine near my bed beeped softly, steadily, reminding me that I was alive when I didn’t want to be.

My body felt heavy, like stone. My stomach hurt, but not as much as my chest. Not as much as the emptiness.

I had thought I would still feel her moving. That maybe it was all a mistake, and the doctor was wrong. B