Ch-37: Darkness

Nico's POV:

I sat alone in the dark, the silence as thick as the shadows around me. The room smelled faintly of antiseptic and old wood, and my body ached in places I didn’t want to acknowledge. The stitches tugged against my side every time I moved, but it wasn’t the pain that kept me sitting there, motionless.

It was the weight.

Everything felt heavier now—my limbs, my chest, my thoughts. I stared at the wall until it blurred into nothing, my fingers pressed against the armrest of the old chair like it might hold me together.

She was gone. Karina. Gone from my side and somehow now my enemy. That truth sat in my chest like a shard of glass I couldn’t remove.

And I had no idea what tomorrow would look like.

I didn’t hear her enter.

Just the creak of the floorboard behind me, then the faint clink of ceramic. I turned my head slowly and saw Miley. She was quiet, hair tied back loosely, wearing one of those soft sweaters she only brought out in winter. She placed a plate of food on the s