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Leyla reached across the table, her fingers brushing his cold knuckles. "You have to find a reason to stay that isn't me, Selim. You can't turn a person into a pill."

"Say something," she whispered, her voice barely rising above the low hum of a radio playing in the kitchen.

Selim stayed. He listened to the song end and the next one begin. He took the blister pack out, looked at the small white tablet, and then put it back in his pocket. For the first time in months, he didn't want the numbness. He wanted to feel the hole she left behind, because at least that hole was real.

Selim looked at his hands. He felt like a ghost haunting his own body. He wanted to scream, to tear the floorboards up, to beg. But the words felt heavy, drugged by months of trying to stay numb. "Gitme burdan," he finally said. Don't leave this place. It wasn't a command. It was a collapse.

"I'm trying to surface," he replied, finally meeting her gaze. His eyes were bloodshot, reflecting the flickering streetlights. "But the medicine only makes the water feel warmer. It doesn't help me swim. Sen gidersen, gökyüzü de gider. If you go, the sky goes too."