The holiday break did not feel like a holiday for Seraphina. It felt like punishment.
Every morning before sunrise, she dragged herself out of bed with aching muscles and swollen eyes while the tiny apartment remained cold and painfully silent around her.
Her mother still had not returned.
Days had passed.
Then weeks.
And still, nothing. No calls, No messages, No explanation.
Sometimes Seraphina would stand quietly outside her mother's locked bedroom door in the mornings, staring at it for long seconds like somehow the woman would suddenly appear if she waited long enough.
But the room remained empty. Just like the apartment.
Just like her life. The loneliness was becoming unbearable. And yet she could not even afford to sit down and break apart properly.
Because tuition existed. Bills existed. Reality existed.
And reality did not care that she was exhausted.
The alarm on her old phone rang loudly at 4:30 a.m.
Seraphina groaned softly before forcing her eyes open.
