MILA
I was underwater.
Floating, drifting, utterly weightless. Everything felt hazy. I couldn’t remember my name, who I was, or how I came to be here. Everything felt distant and quiet. It was almost peaceful.
I was vaguely aware of a sound in the distance, someone shouting out over and over, but the sound faded before it got to me, disappearing into the waves.
But then I heard it: one word, over and over, repeated like a prayer: “Mila.”
Someone was calling my name.
I swam upwards, trying to find the surface of the water, desperate to reach whoever was calling me. Their voice sounded closer and closer. I reached out, waiting to be pulled from the water…
I opened my eyes.
A few blinks revealed that I had somehow ended up in a hospital bed. Several IVs connected me to machines surro
