◢◤ ELYTJE◢◤ Because some grief is too deep to stay inside Elytje, I still speak to you. I still whisper your name into the empty corners of this house, as if saying it enough times could make you appear. But you do not. You never will. The night is my enemy now. I lie awake in the dark, listening to the house breathe without you. It is too quiet. The silence presses against me like a weight, reminding me of everything I lost the moment you left. I reach for you in memory. I remember your paw brushing my hand. Your tiny body curled against my chest. Your eyes, wide and trusting, always saying, “You are mine. I am yours.” And yet… all of that is gone. I walk past your blanket, and I cannot stop myself from pressing my face into it. I need your scent. I need to prove you were real. I need to prove this pain is real. Because sometimes I wake up and forget for a heartbeat that you are gone, and then the world crashes down on me again. People say, “It was just a cat.” They do not know. They do not know what it means to lose a soul who loved you perfectly. They do not know what it means to wake up every day and face a universe where your presence no longer exists. I cry for all the mornings I will never see your little face. I cry for all the nights you will not curl against me. I cry for every tiny sound, every tiny warmth, that no longer fills this house. And yet, I cannot stop. I will not stop. Because every tear is a testament to sixteen years of love, and the world must know: you mattered. You mattered more than the stars, more than anything I have ever held. I am hollow without you. But I am still here, still breathing, still remembering, because that is what you gave me: the strength to love, even when it breaks me. I hope you hear me somewhere, Elytje. I hope the stars carry my words to you. And until the day I can join you, I will love you in the silence, in the shadows, in the spaces you once occupied. Always yours, Localhost