I woke up to voices.
Not loud enough to understand.
Just enough to know they weren’t meant for me.
At first, I thought I was dreaming. The kind where sound bleeds through before your eyes open. But then I shifted, and pain tugged lightly at my arm, the IV still taped there, the reminder that I wasn’t home, wasn’t safe in ignorance anymore.
I stayed still.
That was something I learned quickly in this house.
Stillness gave you information.
The voices came again. Male. Low. Controlled.
Lucien.
And Doctor Cole.
They were outside my door.
“…not ideal,” Doctor Cole was saying. His voice was careful. Too careful. “But it’s manageable if we proceed correctly.”
Proceed.
Lucien didn’t answer immediately. When he did, his voice was calm in the way that meant something had already been de
