Alone in The Morning...

By Mira Mariyam Nazeer

I walked into the kitchen, expecting the familiar chaos of my family's morning routine. But instead, I was met with an eerie silence. The breakfast lay neatly arranged on the table, but the clock on the wall read 6:30 am - far too early for my family to have already left for the day.

A chill ran down my spine as I realized I was alone in the house. The silence was deafening, a heavy blanket that suffocated me. My eyes instinctively darted to the photo of my mom on the wall, and tears pricked at the corners of my eyes.

I felt hollow, like a part of me had been ripped away. But I knew I had to keep moving. I took a deep breath, wiped away the tears, and walked out of the house, pretending that everything.

By Mira Mariyam Nazeer