The house was quiet.
Too quiet.
Three sisters once filled this place with noise — laughter in the mornings, hurried footsteps at noon, tired sighs at night. But now, only one lived here.The youngest.The weakest.The one who always fell sick.
She lay on her small bed, curled under a thin blanket, staring at the ceiling. Her breath felt heavy again. Fever. Maybe. Or maybe just another bad day. She had stopped counting.
Her black cat jumped beside her, pressing its warm body against her chest."Don't look at me like that," she whispered, stroking its fur. "I'm fine… I'm always fine, right?"
But she wasn't.
Her sisters used to sit beside her in moments like this.One worked at a café.One worked at a hotel.Both promised they would never leave her alone.
But promises… break easily.
They left one day — each with their own reasons, their own hopes."Only for a while," they said."We'll visit every week," they said.
Weeks passed.Then months.No one came.
She learned how silence could hurt more than fever.
Still, she tried to live.Every evening, she walked slowly to the small park nearby for fresh air. Sitting under the same old tree, she watched people come and go.
Until one day…
She saw him.
A shy boy kneeling beside an injured dog, trembling as he tried to help it. His hands shook, not because of fear of the dog, but because he wasn't used to people.
She walked closer. "Does he… need more care?"He didn't answer.He just nodded.
So she sat beside him.
Two strangers under a fading sunset.
They didn't speak much that day.But they came again the next day.And the next.
Little by little, he opened up to her — awkwardly, shyly, like a closed window learning to let the air in. She didn't realize it then, but that boy started waiting for her.
Waiting for someone who didn't know if she'd survive tomorrow.
And somewhere far away, her sisters lived their own lives, unaware of the storm slowly forming around the girl they left behind.
End of Chapter 1