Chapter 40: The Quiet Had Teeth

The room had been still for too long. No one spoke. No one moved more than necessary. Silence had become familiar over the past several days — the soft beeping of machines, the steady rhythm of monitors keeping Gray tethered to this world — but tonight, the quiet felt different. Heavier. Like something was holding its breath. The quiet had teeth. It gnawed at them — hour by hour, heartbeat by heartbeat — as if the walls had learned to absorb emotion, until only the softest mechanical sounds kept them rooted in the moment. Isabel stood with her arms folded, eyes fixed on her brother. She kept glancing at the door, then at her phone, waiting for the next call. The bruises on Gray’s face had mostly faded, but the stillness of him — the unnatural, un-Gray stillness — remained. Zach lean