na

shed open, reboundin

the first

the floor, clutching her bleeding arm, the pristine w

my face a mask of frozen shock, the knife

ll and wet with tears. She pointed a trembling f

ife. Then, slowly, he

No hesitation. No search for the tr

he barked to

ven draw a breath. I didn't fight. The

my voice shaking despite my best effo

e!" he

his fine linen handkerchief to h

iven, he stood up an

nected with my cheekbone

ad back. Pain exploded behind

ng over me like a dark god. "I

out, spitting blood o

te ordered, turning his back

uselessly against the floor as I was thrown i

fear. In the center of the room sat a meta

pped me i

later, Dan

is sleeves with precise, methodical movem

simple plastic

guard carried

cold. Ice fil

e knew my

ter in a bucket of filth to keep me quiet. Drowning was my terror. It was the thing that

whispered

emotion, hollowed out. "You attacked a family memb

't touc

guard stepped forward and pl

s swall

it," Da

N

ed the

ater

th like a second, suffocating skin. I tried to inhale,

me dissolved. I was back in the c

the buckles. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. Ther

pped p

ripped the

ved in desperate, ragged rhythms. I was shaking so ha

y. "Say you hurt her because

r was plastered to my skull. My makeup was running in d

ng fractured and re

" I w

es

ice raw and broken. "I hate y

appeared in the armor-he looked hurt. Then t

," he

t back on. Th

home, tortured by the man who had sworn

going to

ng to des