Wounds

Nancy

The room was enveloped in an almost palpable silence. The darkness outside seemed to extend inward, enveloping us in a bubble of stillness. I could hear his breathing next to me on the bed, heavy and filled with tension that made the air seem thicker. Jake was lying down, but his muscles were rigid, as if he couldn't bring himself to rest. Something held him back and kept him in the past.

I watched his every movement and every involuntary contraction. He knew it was the pain that was keeping him awake. He tried to hold her, as if, by doing so, he could control her, as if he could protect himself and me from everything that was boiling inside him. The weight of everything he had been through seemed unbearable at that moment, even more so after the question I had just asked.

Then, after an eternity, he began to speak. His voice came out slowly, drawn out, as if each word needed to overcome something internal before being pronounced.

“I... I could never forget...”

The sentence die