Was this what it felt like to be completely empty? Her small body filled with sorrow as she held the large pillow closer to her chest; clinging to it for dear life and she deeply inhaled her scent. Sobs racked her frame as she remembered that she had left. She wasn't completely sure if they were over but that's how she felt.

She had never been so alone in her life and she had never felt so incapable of helping herself. There was no longer someone to hold her when things got too hard and there was no one to kiss her until she forgot. Reality was crushing her and she was desperately trying to hang onto any thread of sanity she had left. More sobs poured from her soft lips and she cried out into her dark bedroom; praying for the strength to make it through another night.

Her vision was blurred and her hands shook as she picked up her cell phone and checked it for the millionth time since she had left but there was still nothing. She was terrified for her, afraid that something horrible might have happened and she would never know. She had to pick Columbus to take off to, of all places. She knew that she would be safe just like she had promised her she would but she couldn't control other people's actions. The sudden flash of her lying in a dark alley crippled her and the sobs rang out as her body shook painfully, each sob sending a shooting pain through her head.

She gasped for breath and bunched her sheets in her small fists before bringing it to her mouth in an attempt to muffle her screams. She only succeeded in smothering herself and she threw the sheet back and gasped for more air. Her hand touched her other arm but it wasn't her own touch that she felt. She couldn't get the feeling of her touch off her skin and she somehow managed to sob harder and her lungs felt like there were moments away from busting out of her chest.

She had never felt this lonely before; she had never felt so completely alone. She felt like there was nothing left for her and she had no idea how to even get out of bed; she was lost. Her sobs subsided as she passed from upset to eerily calm.

The sudden shift in moods was startling and she sat up abruptly in her bed, peering around the room through glazed eyes. It was a wreck. Her clothes were strewn across the floor when she attempted to find her scent on the fabrics and there were notebooks thrown to various spots upon the floor. She tried to write down all of her feelings but had given up when she couldn't see the pages through the stream of tears.

She flopped back down onto the bed and her head landed upon the pillow. She caught the scent of coconut and vanilla and the sobs returned. She threw a frail arm over the pillow and sobbed into the scent, inhaling in every last molecule of it. She cried out her name into the night before fisting the sheet again with her free hand and gripping it with all her strength. She swallowed hard and winced as her saliva burned the inside of her irritated throat. She threw her hand out in search of another tissue to blow her running nose on but instead felt the soft cloth being placed gently into her hand.

Her eyes snapped open and she stopped breathing.

"Baby, I'm so sorry."