Chapter 17 — The Quiet That Followed
For two days after she returned from the hospital, Trina moved like someone walking through fog.
Slow.
Detached.
Silent.
She went back to school but barely spoke.
She didn't laugh with her friends.
She didn't snap at Alex.
She didn't tease Roomy.
She simply… existed.
Alex tried to pretend everything was normal, but he kept watching her . The way her eyes didn't focus on anything long.
The way her breathing seemed shallow, like she was somewhere else.
The Garden
On the second day, he found her in the school garden.
She was sitting on the stone bench, hands folded, staring at the ground as if waiting for her shadow to speak to her.
"Trina," Alex said softly.
She didn't look up.
"You're scaring me."
Nothing.
Alex quietly knelt in front of her, trying to catch her eyes.
"What do I have to do… to make you look at.. me .. err I mean to make you come back to us?"
His voice cracked slightly.
Trina blinked, but her expression didn't change.
"It's fine," she whispered. "Go."
Just two words.
But they were so empty that they felt colder than any anger she could've thrown.
Roomy Sees Everything
Roomy stood behind a tree, having followed Alex when he noticed his strange behavior.
He watched the entire scene unfold.
Alex kneeling.
Trina unmoving.
Her voice sounding like she wasn't all the way present.
Roomy swallowed hard.
It wasn't jealousy.
It wasn't anger.
It was a strange, unsettling feeling in his chest , like something in Trina was slipping away and they couldn't reach her no matter how close they stood.
A warning rising inside him:
Something is wrong with her.
The Three Days
That night, Trina went home and didn't come out of her room.
Not to eat.
Not to speak.
Not to explain.
Her family noticed the difference immediately.
Her sisters stopped laughing as loudly.
Her father checked her door every hour.
Even the house felt heavier , like the walls were listening.
Inside the room, Trina sat on the floor with her knees drawn up.
There was a presence there.
Not a person.
Not a dream.
A shadow that wasn't attached to anything in the room.
It stood behind her when she sat.
It hovered beside her when she lay down.
It didn't move like a human shadow… it shifted like smoke underwater.
It didn't speak.
But it stayed.
For three days.
And Trina felt like something inside her was being rearranged… slowly.
On the dawn of the third day, the shadow drifted closer, pressing a soft warmth against her back.
Trina's breath hitched.
Then..
It slipped away.
Smoothly.
Silently.
Gone.
She gasped sharply, like someone had removed a weight from her chest.
The air felt clear again.
But she didn't feel the same.
Back to School
Walking into school the next morning, she looked like Trina.
But she moved differently.
Her eyes were softer but unfocused.
Her steps quiet.
Her presence like a whisper.
Roomy saw her first.
Relief hit him,then immediately twisted into worry.
Alex approached next.
"Trina…?" he said gently.
She blinked once, slow.
"Yes."
Just that.
Alex stepped closer.
"Are you feeling better?"
She tilted her head slightly, as if trying to understand why he sounded worried.
Then she simply walked away.
No anger.
No attitude.
No emotion.
Just a quiet, empty distance.
And both boys realized it but in there own ways , one trying to understand the physical and emotional her and the other knowing what it truly meant
Trina is here.
But something inside her didn't.