The morning arrived with a strange stillness, the kind that made Elias hesitate before opening his eyes. He lay in the small wooden shelter he had built, listening to the wind moving faintly through the trees. It was quiet ,too quiet. Not peaceful, not comforting. A quiet that pressed on him like a weight, reminding him that silence can scream when there's nothing left to drown it out.
He sat up slowly, bones stiff from another sleepless night. The strange dreams had returned again. Not nightmares,those he was used to. These dreams were different. Softer somehow. A little boy running barefoot through tall grass. A woman laughing. Someone calling his name from very far away, like their voice was pushing through water. Every time he reached out to them, he woke up. And every time he woke up, he felt more hollow.
He stepped outside, his feet touching the cool dirt. The air had a bite to it, hinting that the season was turning. The ocean stretched in front of him, grey and slow, its waves rolling in like deep breaths. He stood for a while, staring at it, trying to figure out why he felt so uneasy today.
Nothing had happened. Nothing had changed.
But something inside him felt… off. Like his mind was shifting in ways he didn't understand.
He walked toward the forest path, the one that led deeper into the island. It was a narrow trail carved through thick trees and strange plants he still hadn't learned the names of. Elias walked slowly, dragging his fingertips along the rough bark as he passed, grounding himself in the sensation. Sometimes he needed that something physical, something real to remind him he was still here.
Halfway down the path, he noticed something unexpected.
Footprints.
Small ones. Faded, but there. He froze, his heartbeat stumbling. He had spent weeks on this island. He had searched every corner. He had seen no one.
So how
He crouched down, tracing the shallow dent in the soil. Human. Definitely human. Not old enough to be washed away by time. Someone had been here recently. Or maybe… they were still here.
A long breath slipped out of him, shaky and uneven. Part of him felt threatened, but a larger part felt something else ,something he almost didn't recognize.
Hope.
The idea that someone else existed here, even if they didn't want to be found, made his chest tighten in a way that hurt. He had come here to escape everyone. He had come here because he couldn't survive being seen anymore.
But now that he might not be alone…
He wasn't sure he hated the idea as much as he thought he would.
He followed the footprints slowly, cautiously, deeper into the forest.
The trees grew thicker, the air cooler. The path twisted around roots and stones until it suddenly opened into a small clearing. There was nothing there except a patch of overgrown grass and faint marks in the dirt. Marks that looked like someone had sat there. Or slept there. Or cried there.
Elias swallowed hard. His mind raced with questions he couldn't answer.
He took a step forward,and his foot struck something buried under the leaves.
He knelt, pushing the leaves aside.
A bracelet.
Small, simple, made of thin rope tied into a loop.
He held it in his palm, freezing as emotions he didn't recognize surged through him fear, curiosity, loneliness, all mixing together until he didn't know what to do with them.
Someone was here.
Someone who wasn't him.
Elias returned to his shelter as the sun lowered in the sky, casting long shadows across the beach. He felt different unsettled, restless. Like he had opened a door inside himself that he wasn't ready for.
He sat on the edge of his shelter, watching the waves crash gently against the shore. The bracelet lay on the ground beside him. Every now and then his eyes drifted to it, as if making sure it was still there.
For the first time since he arrived on the island, he wasn't thinking about dying.
He wasn't thinking about disappearing.
He was thinking about the footprints, the clearing, the bracelet, the possibility that someone else on this island had walked through their own pain and chosen silence like he did.
He wondered if they were hiding.
He wondered if they were afraid.
He wondered if they needed someone anyone just as badly as he pretended he didn't.
The sky slowly deepened into a soft purple, the air cooling around him. Elias picked up the bracelet again, running his thumb over the rough rope. It felt warm from the sun, almost like it had been touched by someone not long ago.
He didn't know why, but he whispered into the wind, his voice barely audible even to himself.
"I hope you're alive."
The wind carried the words away, but the island heard them.
And for the first time, Elias felt like the island wasn't silent at all.