The Day Silence Spoke

Dear DreamBook, I thought I’d found my safe place again — the one from the first chapter, where the air smelled like sugar and sunlight. But today it was… wrong. The walls still stood where I left them, but their colors had been rinsed out, like someone washed my memories and forgot to add them back. My favorite blanket felt like paper. The air pressed against my skin like wet cloth. I wandered, telling myself it was still mine. But then I heard it. My own thoughts — except not in my voice. They came from the far corner, soft at first: I liked it here. This was mine. Then sharper: You’re too loud. Stop that. Don’t be weird. That’s when I saw her. She was me, but… melted at the edges, like my reflection in a puddle someone just stepped in. Her mouth moved wrong. Her eyes didn’t blink at the right time. She stepped forward, and I felt her shadow push against my ribs. She said her name. Just one name. I.am.Silence And I knew her. I had always known her. Suddenly I was back in my childhood home. The floor warm from summer sun. My sundress spinning in circles, dizzy and laughing. Then a voice — Stop that, you’re bothering people. And a wall began to build inside me. Brick after brick, until I could barely breathe. The Silence didn’t touch me. She didn’t have to. She only watched. And I stopped myself from twirling. My heart is not something you can step on, ~Me xo