ASHER
The moment the door clicked shut behind me, my legs stopped working.
I didn't decide to slide down. My body just gave, quietly and completely, the way a building gives when the last supporting wall comes down. One moment I was standing. The next I was on the floor with my back against the door and my knees pulled up and I sat there for a moment in the dark just breathing or trying to.
Then everything I'd been holding together for the past three hours came apart at once. The sob that tore out of me didn't sound like me. It was raw. It came from somewhere below language, below thought, from whatever part of a person exists before they learn to be careful, and it ripped through my chest on its way out like it was taking something with it.
I pressed both hands over my mouth but didn't help.
