It hurts too much

The silence from Kael's room stretched into days, each morning met with the same heavy disappointment as Emma and Alex stood hesitant at his door. Their knocks, once hopeful, became tinged with a quiet, gnawing worry. Kael remained a silhouette behind the locked door, his grief a fortress keeping them at bay.

Days bled into nights, punctuated only by the echo of their unanswered calls and the growing pile of unread notes they left outside his door. The house, once filled with laughter and light, became a tomb of grief, its silence pressing down on Emma and Alex with each passing hour.

They tried everything. Alex left study materials and whispered words of encouragement outside Kael's window. Emma, her heart heavy with empathy, wrote poems and left them tucked beneath his door, hoping her words would pierce the darkness within.