Chapter 5: The Echo of Silence

Lia’s apartment was a sanctuary of normalcy. The air smelled of citrus-scented cleaner and the familiar aroma of her perpetually brewing coffee. Sunlight streamed through windows that looked out onto a bustling city street, a world away from the shadowy, pine-scented silence of the Pack House. For the first two days, I did little more than sleep, wrapped in a blanket on her couch, the city’s constant hum a comforting lullaby compared to the haunting howls that still echoed in my dreams. My...