Amber Echoes and Stone Sighs

The sun is just beginning to peel back the layers of night, leaving a sticky warmth on my skin that feels like an afterthought. I can still taste the gin and the salt of our last conversation lingering in my mouth—a ghost of a night that felt like it would never end.
My hands are cold against this stone ledge, but the memory of his touch is still humming under my fingernails. We didn't say much; just enough words to bridge the gap between two lonely bodies. It wasn't about solving anything—it was just about being held in the space between what happened and what comes next.
The water ripples, a small disturbance in a silent world. I watch it and feel a strange sort of healing—not the kind that fixes things, but the kind that lets you sit with the broken pieces for a while. The city is waking up somewhere beyond these walls, but here, in this humid pocket of air, time has stalled. I’m not ready to go back yet. Let me stay in this blur just a little longer.

Editor: Dusk Till Dawn