The silence was the worst part.

It wasn’t the kind of peaceful quiet people prayed for. It was the kind that made your stomach twist, the kind that told you something was lurking just out of sight, waiting.

Weeks had passed. Then a month. Then two. And still… nothing.

Ghost was still lying in that hospital bed, hooked up to more machines than any human should ever need. His chest rose and fell only because a tangle of tubes and wires told his body to keep trying. Jason visited almost every day. Leah visited too, sometimes with coffee, sometimes just to sit in the corner and listen to the hum...