He watched M leave. He watched a new family move in, their laughter like glass shards in his quiet space. He lashed out, shattering plates to reclaim the silence, but they only replaced the porcelain and kept laughing.
The white linen was no longer a bedsheet; it was a weight. Underneath it, C did not feel like a man, but like the memory of a smell—old cedar, floor wax, and the faint, metallic tang of a piano string. He watched M leave
Time began to lose its edges. It didn't flow; it sedimented. The white linen was no longer a bedsheet; it was a weight
The sheet collapsed. There was no one under it. The note fluttered to the floor, and the house was finally, truly, empty. It didn't flow; it sedimented
He waited. He endured the loop until the house was empty once more. With a spectral fingernail, he picked at the paint, chipping away decades of grime until he reached the slip of paper. He pulled it out and read the words he had written to her when he was whole.