"She saw cracks no one else did."
Silver's alarm went off at 6:30, but she'd been staring at the ceiling since five. Three nights of barely sleeping had left her feeling hollow, like someone had scooped out everything inside and left just the shell.
She went through her morning routine on autopilot. Brush teeth. Hair in ponytail. Yale Athletics hoodie over leggings. The same playlist she'd been running to since freshman year. But halfway through her jog around Old Campus, she ripped out her earbuds. Even the music felt wrong, too upbeat for the gray fog in her head.
The February morning was brutal, that particular New Haven cold that cut through layers. Salt crunched under her sneakers where maintenance had over-treated the paths. A few early risers hurried past with coffee cups, breath clouding in the frigid air. The Gothic buildings looked postcard perfect against the pale sky, but Silver felt disconnected from all of it.
