The hospital at night was another world entirely. Hushed, silver-lit, and unsettlingly calm. Machines whispered in steady rhythm, screens blinked soft green, and somewhere down the hall, a nurse's shoes made a lonely squeak against polished linoleum. Lilly sat by Nathan's bedside, her chin resting on her hand, her eyes half open but her mind miles away.
Her brother slept deeply, his chest rising and falling beneath the thin white sheet. The doctors said he was stable now, but she didn't dare believe in peace just yet. Each beeping sound from the monitor still made her heart lurch as if the world could change again in a heartbeat.
It was 1:35 a.m. when her phone buzzed softly on the metal tray beside her. She blinked, half expecting it to be one of the nurses, but the name on the screen made her chest warm and ache all at once.
Mark: You awake?
Her fingers hovered over the screen. Then another message appeared before she could type.
