The Cost of Ruin

Sylvie told the driver to stop at the gates and walk ahead without her.

The cemetery was quiet. Mid-afternoon on a Tuesday, the city muffled behind the stone walls, a few figures scattered at distant plots. She walked the path she had memorized from the funeral. Past the older graves. Past the section for families. Until she reached the grey stone with his name on it.

She stood there for a long ti