28Nora
Trembling from head to toe, I stare at Julian, my chest squeezing with agony at the sight. There is a rough, dirty-looking bandage on his shoulder, with blood seeping out of it, and his naked body is a mass of cuts, bruises, and scrapes. His face is even worse. Below the old bandage on his forehead, there isn’t a spot left that isn’t discolored or swollen. The most horrifying thing of all, however, is the huge bleeding gash running through his left cheek and all the way up into his eyebrow—a mess of ragged flesh where his eye used to be.
Where his eye used to be.
They cut out his eye.
I can’t even begin to process that at the moment, so I don’t try. For now, Julian is alive, and that’s all that matters.
He’s tied to a metal chair, his legs bound apart and his arms restrained be
