User: cat_sis Status: OFFLINE
The cursor blinks, patient as a cat waiting by a door no one opens. cat sis offline
In the metadata, one last packet remains unsent: User: cat_sis Status: OFFLINE The cursor blinks, patient
The chat scrolls on without her. New memes. New goodnights. A bot announces someone just joined #music-production. A gif of a dancing banana. New goodnights
No one answered. Not because no one was there—the channel holds thirty lurkers, quiet as furniture. But because the moment stretched. And then the server refreshed. And her name turned gray.
The system doesn't log why. Doesn't log the soft click of a laptop lid closing in a room where rain taps against a window. Doesn't log the ringtone that went unanswered. Doesn't log the empty bowl of tea growing cold beside a sleeping phone.
And somewhere, in a different window, a friend types: "Hey. You okay?"