CHAPTER ELEVEN
Violet Perry forced her heavy eyelids open and tried to focus on the yellowed ceiling above her. A misty haze clouded her vision.
Am I dreaming?
Where am I?
She swallowed. Her tongue pressed against dry cotton, her throat parched. She jiggled her head, trying to shake the fog from her mind. Her vision began to clear. The unfamiliar surroundings—the stained ceiling, a cardboard-covered window to her right—morphed from their fuzzy dreamlike state into cold reality.
Panic rushed through her.
She screamed—the sound muffled into a whimper. There was something stuffed in her mouth. A gag. Either drool or sweat—she wasn’t sure which—had plastered strands of her golden brown hair to her cheek. Her arms stretched behind her head. Her wrists had been bound, fastened by a chain t
