I woke up to hear someone's breath. Deep. Measured. Too intimate. My body contracted instinctively. Two decades of living, of living under threat, of never relaxing, had conditioned me to wake up to protect myself. But in trying to rise, a jagged shock of pain coursed through my ribs, keeping me in place. What? My eyes opened, and the world around me crystallized—a dark apartment, the smell of something faintly flowered, and heat that didn’t emanate from myself. Where am I? I pushed up on elbows, and jagged pains ran through my body in protest. The clothing on my body was unfamiliar: dry joggers, unfamiliar shirts—but I didn’t know where or how. The last thing I remembered, though, was the lake. The creak of ice beneath my weight. Darkness swallows me up. Someone had rescued me. And now, only a few feet ahead of them, tucked up in an armchair, asleep. A woman. She was small, but there was strength in the way she stood, even in sleep. Loosening dark hairs fell around her face
Last Updated : 2025-02-25
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