FILE 004: INVENTORY PROTOCOL // THE ARCHIVIST

SUBJECT: CATALOGING ABSENCE SOURCE: THE SHAPE OF THE SILENCE

The day after my sister disappeared, I began cataloguing everything that didn't vanish with her. Not out of logic. Not for closure. Just to keep the edges from slipping.

I started with piles.

Some things were meaningful: photographs, half-finished crafts, her mood necklace that always turned blue when she was tired. Some things were not: broken crayons, paper towel tubes, hair ties in colors she never wore.

But I wrote them all down. Item. Location. Condition.

I spent whole nights sorting beads she never finished stringing. They stuck to my fingers like static. Her notebooks blurred in places, the ink slouched like it was grieving.

I told myself: if I could remember everything, she wouldn't really be gone. If I could name it all, the dust would release her.

[ Excerpt from The Shape of the Silence ]