CHAPTER 64

Chapter 64:

Caroline’s POV

The silence wasn’t quiet.

It had a pulse.

It hummed with the weight of footsteps that had walked these floors before me… screams swallowed by these crooked walls… and something dark that waited in the air like smoke that wouldn’t clear.

I stayed still.

Eyes half-lidded, breathing shallow, I listened.

Somewhere close, a guard coughed. The chair creaked. Water dripped from an old pipe like a ticking clock. My wrists twitched. I could move. I wasn’t tied.

And that terrified me more than ropes ever could.

Robertson hadn’t bound me because he didn’t see me as a threat.

Not yet.

He’d made a mistake.

I turned my head slowly. A small window sat high on the wall. Too narrow for comfort, but maybe not for desperation. There were two doors. One was locked from the outside, the other hung half-open, leading into darkness. Between them sat an old table… a pitcher, a glass, a pen.

My eyes lingered on the pen.

Caroline. Focus.

A thump echoed outside.

I shut my eyes again,