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NO MORE HYSTERIA

Author: LUNA INK
last update Last Updated: 2025-10-28 04:44:09

Ethan's pov

I couldn't sleep.

Not from the noise, or the nightmares — just the silence. That empty, heavy one that presses in until you start hearing your own thoughts too loudly. Each breath too loud, each creak of the sheets too harsh. And in all this silence, I could still hear the echo of my own fear from last night. The way my heart locked up, the way the room had spun until the whole thing blacked out.

I hadn't experienced a panic attack in years.

And yet, a look at Aaron, a senseless argument, a burst of temper — and I was there again in a flash.

I massaged my eyes and sat up in bed, staring at the faint light filtering through the blinds. Mandy's voice was still echoing in my brain — You're always angry, or frustrated these days. It's not you, Ethan.

She'd said it the day or so before, half-serious but half-not, and it had stuck with me. Maybe because she was right.

That wasn't the person I was anymore.

I had been light. Unfettered. Someone who could turn a horrendous day int
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    Aaron’s POVThere had been weeks of complete silence. Weeks that had reduced the world to a small, crushing box that I was trapped inside. I had been discharged from the hospital a few days ago, but I had found that leaving that antiseptic room had not set me free—it had merely made life even more cumbersome. My home, that once had been a refuge for me, now seemed empty, resonating with every beat of my heart like a morbid reminder that life was going on, even though I was stuck in suspended animation.Every fiber of me hurt. My cuts and bruises were only the physical manifestation of the pain, but the ache within me, the hollow feeling, the flux of guilt that roiled through me like an insatiable monster, that was mine. Cheryl and Mandy had become my lifelines, coming by periodically to make sure I was holding together somewhat, but those relationships had frayed too. I can see it—the tension marking Cheryl's face, the tired slump of Mandy's shoulders as she smiled, but they still f

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