Aurora's POV
The darkness that covers me isn’t empty. It breathes.
It moves around me like water, very thick and heavy, pulling me deeper with every second I stop fighting. I don’t know where my body is anymore. I don’t feel the bed. I don’t feel the pain in my side. I don’t even feel my heartbeat.
All I feel is the weight of everything I’ve ever lost. The past finds me first.
It always does.
I’m a child again, sitting on the floor of my bedroom, my knees pulled to my chest, listening to voices that are raised downstairs. My father’s voice sounds tired. Natalie’s sounds sharp, cutting through the walls like broken glass.
“She’s gone,” Natalie says. “Stop living in the past.”
Then my mother’s name, spoken like it’s something dirty.
I remember pressing my hands over my ears. I remem
