Chapter 56: "No One Knows"
Everything felt distant. Muffled.
Zariah wasn't sure if she had passed out or if her mind had simply gone somewhere else, somewhere quieter. The blood had slowed, but the panic hadn't. She lay curled on the bathroom floor, her sleeves soaked, her body shaking in waves that wouldn't stop.
She tried to sit up, her vision swimming. Her fingers were weak, slippery with red, trembling too much to clean anything properly. She reached for a towel, pressing it against her arm with whatever strength she had left.
Time moved strangely — minutes that felt like hours, and hours that vanished into seconds.
She didn't cry anymore. She couldn't.
The breakdown had drained her of everything.
No one was home.
No one was coming.
And still… she didn't scream.
Eventually, she stumbled to her feet. Her legs felt like sticks, barely supporting her. She wrapped her arm tight with gauze and duct tape — whatever she could find. Her hoodie hid the worst of it.
She looked in the mirror.
Pale. Empty-eyed. A ghost.
But alive.
Somehow.
When her mom finally came home that night, Zariah was in bed, motionless, pretending to be asleep.
Her mom peeked in, a plastic bag of takeout in hand. "I brought food, Z. I'll leave it in the kitchen."
Zariah didn't answer.
She couldn't.
Her mom sighed and quietly closed the door.
Zariah's eyes stayed wide open in the dark.
She didn't eat.
She didn't move.
She just listened to the sounds of the house — her mother in the kitchen, the fridge door closing, the soft scrape of a chair as she sat down alone.
Her chest ached. Her head buzzed.
And still, no one knew.
Not even Jasmine.