Chapter 16: when the world breaks

Abigail’s phone rang incessantly that morning, but she didn’t want to answer. Something in her chest felt tight, a cold, gnawing weight she couldn’t shake. When she finally forced herself to look, the name flashing on the screen made her stomach drop.

Callie.

She swiped reluctantly.

“Abby…oh God,” Callie’s voice was shaking, breathless. “It’s…Maya. She—she’s gone.”

Abigail froze, staring at the phone. “What do you mean…gone?”

Callie sobbed. “She…she had an accident. No one knows how it happened. She’s…dead, Abby.”

The world seemed to tilt. Words blurred. Her legs buckled beneath her. “No…no, that’s not—”

“Yes, Abby,” Marcus’s voice cut in from the line, trembling. “It’s true. She…she’s gone. We—We just…we thought you should know first.”

Abigail sank to the floor, clutching the phone. The apartment around her felt impossibly quiet, as if all sound had been sucked out of existence. Tears streamed down her cheeks, uncontrolled, as her mind refused to accept the words. Maya—her friend, her constant companion, the one who had always been there—was gone.

She buried her face in her hands. “No…no…this can’t be real. It’s not real. It’s not…”

Her sobs wracked her body, a storm that refused to be quelled. Minutes passed—or hours; she couldn’t tell anymore. The world outside her window continued, oblivious to the devastation inside.

A soft knock at the door pulled her from her spiral. She barely registered it, thinking it was some hallucination, until she heard it again, firmer this time.

“Abby…” a familiar voice said.

Her heart clutched painfully at the sound. It was James. She blinked through tear-streaked cheeks and stumbled to the door.

He was there, coat dusted with snow, eyes soft and worried. Without a word, he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

“James…” she whispered, her voice breaking.

He knelt beside her on the floor, taking her trembling hands in his. “Shh…shh. I’m here. You’re not alone.”

“I…Maya…” she choked out. “She’s…gone. I can’t…why…how…”

James pulled her close, letting her bury her face against his chest. “I know. I know it hurts. I can’t take it away, but I’m here. I’ll be here. Always.”

She clung to him like a lifeline, sobbing into his shoulder. The room smelled faintly of his cologne and the rain outside, a small anchor in the sea of grief.

“I can’t do this without her,” Abigail said in a broken whisper. “I…she was…my friend…”

“I know,” James murmured, holding her tightly. “And it’s okay to feel this way. It’s supposed to hurt. You’re allowed to cry, to scream, to feel everything. Don’t hide it from me.”

For a while, they just sat there—her shaking, him holding, the world outside muted and distant. Her mind kept circling back to Maya’s laughter, her teasing, the small things that made life bearable. And now they were gone.

“I don’t… I don’t want anyone else to go,” Abigail said finally, voice cracking. “I can’t… I can’t survive that again.”

James stroked her hair, holding her tighter. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not while I’m here. I swear.”

Abigail pressed closer, letting herself find comfort in him, in the warmth and solidity of his presence. Her grief, for a moment, softened—not gone, but manageable, framed around the anchor James provided.

But in the shadowed corner of her mind, a question she refused to voice nagged quietly: Why did Maya die? Why her…?

James’ voice broke through her thoughts. “Do you want me to stay? Just tonight? I’ll stay.”

She nodded without hesitation. “Please.”

And as he wrapped her in his arms, the apartment held them both in quiet darkness—two souls bound by grief, love, and something undefinable, while the first real cracks in Abigail’s world began to widen.