35. Fainting Lights

Before they knew it, the funeral preparations were finished, and the dull air of the day weighed heavily over the entire town. Students, teachers, neighbors—everyone who had ever known Rose—gathered to pay their respects. The town was a sea of muted colors as if nature itself mourned her loss. Rose had been the kind of girl who lit up every room she entered. Her laughter was contagious, her presence a warm ray of light on even the gloomiest days. She had a way of making people feel seen, valued, and happy. But life, with its cruel twists and shadows, had taken its toll on her. A terrible tragedy and a silent storm of grief pushed her to the edge of her sanity. She swayed there, crying out for help in ways too silent for anyone to notice—or perhaps, too wrapped up in their own lives, they chose not to see. She had been drowning in sorrow, her pleas swallowed by the emptiness around her. All it would have taken was a single, outstretched hand to save her, to remind her that she mattered.