I learned very quickly that captivity didn’t always come with chains. Sometimes it came with silk sheets, soundproof walls, and the illusion of choice. The room they kept me in now was nothing like the pit, nothing like the steel corridors soaked in blood and panic. This place was quiet in a way that pressed against my ears. Soft lighting. A bed too large for one person. Walls curved instead of straight, like the inside of a shell. No visible cameras, though I knew better than to believe that. Genesis never wasted space. Or eyes. I sat on the edge of the bed with my hands folded in my lap, breathing slowly, counting each inhale the way the Council therapist had taught me weeks ago. In for four. Hold for two. Out for six. They liked control dressed up as care. The twins shifted inside me, s
