silence. the one that follows that gut-wrenching, soul-shaking laughter that then just KEEPS going, not with sorrow but a sudden, untamed flood of tears that leaves the back of my throat tasting of copper and my skin prickling with something akin to revelation, like my whole system finally decided to purge every last stored drop of everything that wasn't pure, leaving behind only this peculiar, vibrating hum just under my jaw, a new kind of resonance in the space where the fear used to constrict.