The silence after the rain stops is always too loud

I was walking home and the downpour just… ceased. One second the world was a blur of grey and drumming, the next it was so quiet I could hear my own breath. Not peaceful—just full. Like the air had been holding its breath for hours and now it was exhaling all at once. I stood there, soaked, listening to the way water still dripped from eaves like someone counting in a language I used to understand but forgot.