Silence.

An extract from Inside Her Mind - a WIP book on a young girl's mental health and inner thoughts, by Zia Barti.

I’ve never known what silence feels like…

But now, more than ever, I want to feel it.

She scrawled the words in her sloping handwriting, dotting the ‘I’s and perfecting the curves’ shapes to her own comfort.

The paper was crinkled, folded at corners, cold, coarse, and covered in the dots of tear stains.

But it was raw. It was honest. It was hers.

Her mind.

At seventeen, she’d already felt something change, shift in her. In only the last passing year, the last few months…

She’d felt that now more than ever… she had lost something precious.

Something that had kept her heart beating and gaze sharp, forward, hopeful all this time.

Hope.

I’ve already given up on myself…

© Zia Barti, 2025. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission from the author.