I left the fan running every night so the ringing would not win. Then one night the house stayed quiet.

Silence had become the enemy. The second the house went still the ringing rose until it owned every corner of my head. I dreaded bedtime and kept noise going not for company but because I needed something louder than the sound. I smiled when people asked how I was and never explained the private battle. The fear that this noise was slowly replacing the person I used to be sat heavy every day. Then the nights stopped feeling like that. Now I fall asleep in a completely still room and the quiet feels ordinary again.