The Revenge of One Humiliated
— No one will hurt us again, I whisper to the fogged window, to the child, to the broken woman I still am.
My voice is barely a whisper, but in the relative silence of the carriage, it has the strength of a vow.
The regular rhythm of the wheels on the tracks settles in, click-clack, click-clack. A mechanical lullaby, a white noise that fills everything, drowns thought, numbs pain. The lights of the few isolated farms flash by like fallen stars. The landscape is nothing but a dark expanse, punctuated by even darker masses.