Time had turned into a wound that refused to heal.
After Thomas was gone, Belle's world seemed to stop moving.
Every morning, when she stood before the mirror,
she felt as though someone was still watching her from the other side—
that same soft smile,
that same glow in the eyes,
the same warmth that used to light up her days.
But now… everything had changed.
The house was silent,
cold winds brushed against the old walls,
and inside Belle's heart was a loneliness that no words could describe.
Her parents had built an invisible wall around her.
Her mother checked her room every few minutes,
her father drove her to college himself,
and sometimes, without saying a word, they'd open her door—
just to make sure she was okay.
As if she was not their daughter anymore,
but a fragile soul who had survived something unexplainable—
someone they couldn't afford to lose again.
Belle had become quiet.
She went to college, came back,
smiled when friends spoke to her,
but that smile… it no longer reached her eyes.
Sometimes, in the middle of a lecture,
she would gaze out of the window,
and when the wind touched her face,
she could swear someone whispered her name so softly—
"Belle…"
Her heart would skip a beat for a second,
but when she turned around — nothing.
Only emptiness, and the echo of her own heartbeat.
One night, her mother came to her room.
She sat beside her and said gently,
"My dear, it's all over now. You have to move on.
Whatever that was… it was just an illusion."
Belle lowered her gaze.
A faint smile crossed her lips,
but a tear slid silently down her cheek.
"Yes, Mom… maybe it was just an illusion…"
But her voice trembled with a pain only someone in love could understand.
At college, she was surrounded by people,
yet completely alone.
Friends would ask, "Belle, why are you so quiet these days?"
And she'd simply reply,
"Nothing. I just didn't sleep well."
But the truth was, she hadn't really slept in weeks.
She spent her nights awake —
sometimes staring at the moon,
sometimes holding the dried flowers Thomas once gave her.
Her father often told her,
"You have to move forward in life, Belle.
Life doesn't stop for anyone."
And she would whisper,
"I'm trying, Dad…
but my heart stayed behind."
At night, she'd lie in bed listening to the stillness around her.
And sometimes, it felt like someone was breathing just beyond the door.
She'd get up to check — no one there.
Yet, a strange certainty lived inside her heart:
Thomas hadn't completely gone.
He was still there — somewhere close,
maybe in the wind,
maybe in the quiet corners of her memories.
Belle still smiled sometimes,
but behind every smile was a silent ache.
Days passed,
but time, for her, had stopped.
Since Thomas left,
she had become a stranger to herself.
And sometimes,
in the stillness of midnight,
when the curtain moved with the whisper of the breeze,
a tear escaped her eye —
as if that wind carried Thomas's touch.
And she would whisper into the dark,
"If you're really gone…
then why does my heart still feel you?"
Her parents tried everything to bring her back to life,
but what was broken inside her could not be repaired.
Her love hadn't died;
it had only fallen silent.
And in that silence, Belle's love had turned into a prayer —
that maybe someday,
somehow,
he would return to her again.
💔