Lyra’s POVFLASHBACK 11 YEARS BACKThe world dissolves into screaming. My screaming. The smell of rain on hot pavement is so sharp it burns my nose. My mother’s arms, Iris, are wrapped around me, a desperate cage. “No, please, no! Let her go!”A different set of arms, brutal and strong, yanks me from her. The world tilts. I’m flying, then crashing into the dark, smelly inside of a van. The doors slam shut, swallowing the light. Swallowing her.The van moved away. I scream until my throat hurts and no sound comes out.Just as the van stopped. The doors open to a different darkness. A basement. It smells of wet dirt, of rotten wood, of something else… something sharp and metallic I don’t have a name for yet.A man with a black mask over his face shoves me inside. “Move.”I stumble forward. Other kids are huddled on a cold concrete floor. Their crying is a low, constant hum, like trapped bees. I count seven. Then six. Then seven again. My eyes won’t focus.A small boy with wide, scared e
Last Updated : 2025-11-21 Read more