The Bell Chime

by Mona Kabbani

what was it that was causing her so much pain? She can’t remember now.

If you enjoyed this story as it is, then I suggest you stop here.

Continue with your breathing and shut this book out. Perhaps revisit it on a day you wish to feel that depression, as I know we all sometimes do, as masochistic as that may be.

This white tube is all she has left. What used to help fix her is no longer here.

So she doesn’t move for the rest of the train ride home. She remains still, hoping that maybe if she keeps her muscles strung so tight, no one will notice the broken girl taking up space on the train seat. And they don’t. What they see is entirely different.

It’s dark out, but that doesn’t stop her. Even with years of fearing the dark, she feels invincible. No, that’s not right. She feels . . . destructive.

Purgatory for people balancing on the fine line between life and death? A Schrödinger’s box for lost souls? Would she find him there?

And he wondered. He wondered so deeply that as much as he wanted to be attached to her by the skin of their souls, he wondered if they could ever survive each other.

And in that moment, Dylan realized that no matter how much he loved something, he would always destroy everything he touched.