His friends called him "The Ghost," but that wasn't quite right. Ghosts haunted people; Elias just occupied a space they couldn't reach. To the world, his status was a permanent gray circle:
The blinking cursor was the only thing moving in Elias’s apartment. For three weeks, every text he received ended up in the same mental graveyard. unavailable
A common glitch or notification on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, usually caused by a post being deleted, a user blocking you, or the 24-hour time limit expiring. His friends called him "The Ghost," but that
Elias looked at his phone. For the first time in a month, he didn't see the word "unavailable" as a shield. He saw it as a door he had locked from the inside. He reached out, his thumb hovering over the screen, and began to type. For three weeks, every text he received ended
