George's pain

With George not showing any signs that he wanted to communicate, Talia didn't want to linger.

"I will be back in the evening to take this away and bring fresh food. No one will disturb you. If you need anything, you only need to shout, and someone will come to check on you."

She said her goodbyes and left.

What Talia didn't see was that George's eyes moved when Talia closed the door behind her.

George heard Talia. He was aware of everything happening around him, but he didn't have the desire to respond. It was like all that was happening to someone else and he was observing from the third person's point of view.

Detachment allowed him to ease the pain, but the truth was that he felt hollow, like someone removed an important part from his chest. He was an empty shell, without a drive to react to external stimuli.