I’m drowning in this darkness, in these shadows, and Artem comes closer and closer, and that knife of his touches the soft curve of my throat and there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no one to help because my husband killed the only other man who ever tried to protect me and if I don’t have one or the other of them than I don’t have anyone and so all I can do is scream and scream and scream as Artem takes one final look in my eyes and then he tugs his jagged knife across my throat.
And everything turns to darkness.
I sense voices all around me. Some calm, others panicked.
I hear the shuffling of feet and the beeping of monitors.
I feel whispers at my ear and warm breath on my cheek.
I try to open my eyes, but my eyelids are impossibly heavy. It takes all my effort just to lift the
