The town had grown quieter since Amara’s disappearance, a kind of silence that clung to everything. Even the air felt heavier.

But inside the police station, the noise was constant.

Dylan Greene sat across the table, his hands cuffed loosely, his face pale.

The locket, Amara’s locket had been found in his room.

He said he didn’t know how it got there.

His father, the mayor, said the same.

 You’re harassing my son, Mayor Greene snapped.

Find the real story not the convenient one.

And just like that, the search paused again.

Elena have not been to class in days.

She sat on her dorm bed, her phone clutched to her chest, staring at Amara’s contact name on the screen.

Sometimes she imagined texting, just to see the typing… bubble appear again.

But instead, what she heard was the whisper.

Soft. Faint. Like breath brushing her ear.

It’s not your fault.

It made her freeze every time.

She knew it wasn’t real  couldn’t be but it sounded so much like Amara.

She would close her eyes, and there it was again, behind the sound of rain, behind her heartbeat.

You left too soon.

I wasn’t ready.

---

Her mother came over one evening.

The moment she stepped into the room, she saw it  the exhaustion in Elena’s eyes, the way her hands trembled as she tried to smile.

Elena, she said softly, you can’t keep doing this to yourself. You need help.

Elena wanted to argue. To say she was fine.

But the whisper in her head beat her to it 

Don’t let her fix you. You’ll forget me.

Tears burned her eyes.

I just miss her, she whispered.

Her mother hugged her, and for the first time, Elena didn’t hug back.

---

The next morning, she sat in front of a therapist, a calm voice, warm eyes.

But as she spoke, the whisper lingered at the edge of her words.

She said she wanted peace.

But in truth, she was terrified of what peace meant 

because if the voice stopped, it would mean Amara was truly gone.

---

Outside, the rain fell again, the same soft rhythm that filled their old dorm on sleepless nights.

And in that quiet, the whisper came back, almost gentle this time:

I’m still here.

Elena closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

Because maybe, for now, that was enough.