




I read: I’ve lived with a knife in my heart, Not of steel, but of silence, Each day a careful cut, each night a wound that never healed. I hold my brother’s name in a breath, The weight of a promise unkept, And the echo of a life that could have been. The silence after my words was heavy, but then a gentle applause rose—an acknowledgment of the bravery to speak the unsaid.
“Because you’re the only one brave enough to look at the reflection and ask, ‘Is that really me?’” He pushed the knife toward me. “Take it. Or walk away with the same old ache.” I stared at the blade. Its edge was flawless, its handle warm as if it had been held many times before. My fingers trembled as I reached out, and for a split second I imagined the knife slicing through the layers of my own skin—painful, liberating, final.
One rainy Thursday, a flyer slipped through my mailbox, its corners soaked: The address was a warehouse on the outskirts of the city, a place I’d never visited.

I read: I’ve lived with a knife in my heart, Not of steel, but of silence, Each day a careful cut, each night a wound that never healed. I hold my brother’s name in a breath, The weight of a promise unkept, And the echo of a life that could have been. The silence after my words was heavy, but then a gentle applause rose—an acknowledgment of the bravery to speak the unsaid.
“Because you’re the only one brave enough to look at the reflection and ask, ‘Is that really me?’” He pushed the knife toward me. “Take it. Or walk away with the same old ache.” I stared at the blade. Its edge was flawless, its handle warm as if it had been held many times before. My fingers trembled as I reached out, and for a split second I imagined the knife slicing through the layers of my own skin—painful, liberating, final.
One rainy Thursday, a flyer slipped through my mailbox, its corners soaked: The address was a warehouse on the outskirts of the city, a place I’d never visited.





