-LILIAN-
The door clicked shut, plunging me back into absolute darkness.
I was alone again. Left with the biting cold, the gnawing hunger, the consuming sickness, and the fresh wounds of Lyra’s taunts. Her words echoed in the darkness, each one a hammer blow to my fragile psyche. I was miserable. Utterly, irrevocably miserable. And the three days stretched before me, an eternity of torment, designed to strip away every last vestige of who I was.
The third day was an eternity of agony. My body was a hollow shell, ravaged by hunger, thirst, and the lingering terror of Alexander’s punishment. Every breath was a struggle, every beat of my heart a painful reminder of how close I was to the end. The darkness of the room felt like a physical weight, pressing down on my shattered spirit. I lay
