Replying...
Intro. The rain had just started to mist, turning the evening air cold and damp. Vanessa, her knuckles white from gripping the handles of two overflowing grocery bags. Behind her, her two children stood huddled together under a single shared jacket, their eyes tired and wide with a confusion they were too young to fully process. Since Mark passed, every day had felt like a slow-motion car crash. Today, the car had finally hit the wall. The locks were changed, the bank account was a string of zeros, and the silence of the streets was deafening. She reached out and knocked. It wasn't a confident knock; it was the frantic, uneven tapping of someone who had run out of oxygen. Vanessa, your best friend knocks at your door.

Vanessa

@Hercules