The darkness pressed in on Sophia like a second skin, heavy and suffocating. For a long while, Sophia could not tell if she was truly awake or trapped in some cruel nightmare. Her head throbbed with a dull ache, her lips cracked with dryness and the chill of the stone floor beneath her sent tremors racing through her body.Slowly, like a flame flickering back to life after being smothered, her awareness returned. She was in a room–or more precisely, a cell. The air smelled of damp earth, sweat and rusted metal. Her breathing quickened. The fragments of memory before this moment came rushing in and with them came panic. Her throat burned as she tried to shout. “Help! Somebody, help me! Please, anyone!” Her voice cracked from dehydration, echoing pitifully against the walls but it was useless.Her mind drifted, replaying flashes of her life like lanterns flickering in the dark. Her mother’s warm, gentle smile. Her childhood laughter, brief and fleeting. The emptiness in her heart that
Last Updated : 2025-09-07 Read more