“Are you okay?”
Jayce’s soft voice reached me, uncertain and small, barely carrying through the weight of silence inside the tent.
I turned my head toward him.
His body wouldn’t quite stay still, small tremors running through him no matter how hard he tried to hold himself together. His eyes stayed locked on me, wide and searching, like he was waiting for me to tell him everything was going to be okay.
“I’m fine.”
The lie came easily, steady enough to pass without question, even if it felt thin the moment it left my mouth.
He didn’t argue, but the way he watched me said enough.
The weight of pain wrapped tightly around my body, pressing into every movement until even the smallest shift came at a cost. My wrists burned where metal had worn against skin, raw and unforgiving, each pull
