Riddles Under the Lights

The zombie thing started junior year. Not the walking-dead kind—the kind where you show up, go through the motions, but you're not actually there. Inside, something had hollowed out.

I was standing behind the backstop at the baseball field, phone buzzing with texts I couldn't answer. Maya's been gone three months now, and somehow the world kept moving like nothing happened. That was the riddle, wasn't it? The sphinx-like question nobody could answer: how does everything continue when your whole world stopped?

"You okay?" Carlos asked, sliding onto the bench beside me. His cracked screen showed the same snapchat from everyone—party at Tyler's tonight. You going?

"Nah," I said, gripping my iphone until my knuckles turned white. "Not feeling it."

"Bro, it's been months. You can't keep—"

"Can't keep what?" I snapped, and then felt bad immediately. Carlos had been patient, checking in, sitting with me at lunch even when I stared at my tray like it held the secrets of the universe.

He sighed. "You're running from everything. From the team, from your friends, from... her memory."

The truth hit like a fastball to the chest. I was running. Had been since the accident. Every time I thought about Maya—her laugh, how she'd text me stupid memes at 2 AM, the way she made everything feel less heavy—I bolted. I threw myself into baseball stats I didn't care about. I ghosted my friends. I avoided her locker like it was cursed.

"I don't know how to stop," I admitted, something breaking loose in my chest.

Carlos bumped my shoulder. "Nobody does. You just kind of... stop running eventually. When you get tired enough."

The stadium lights flickered on above us, casting shadows that stretched long across the dirt. For the first time in months, the tightness in my throat loosened.

"Tyler's party," I said finally. "You think there'll be pizza?"

Carlos grinned. "Always."

I wasn't fixed. The sphinx still had her claws in me, and some days I still moved through the world like a zombie. But maybe that was okay. Maybe you didn't solve the riddle all at once. Maybe you just kept showing up, kept letting people in, and eventually, somehow, you started feeling alive again.

I pocketed my phone and stood up. "Alright. Let's go."

The running could wait.