Sudha lay quietly on the bed, still and half-lost in sleep, while the room remained wrapped in a strange silence. Not the peaceful kind of silence—the kind that comes after something terrible has already happened and everyone is too exhausted to speak. The curtains moved slightly with the evening breeze coming through the window. Somewhere outside, distant voices existed, but inside this room, time felt slower.

Right beside her bed, a wooden chair had been pulled close.