The click of the lock was the loudest thing I had ever heard. It wasn't just the sound of a door closing; it was the sound of the world shutting me out.
I didn't move from the floor, I dared not move. I stayed exactly where Sylvie had shoved me, my back pressed against the wood of the door, my breath coming in shallow gasps. The room was beautiful, filled with the scent of dried lavender and old stone, but to me, it felt like I had been locked in a coffin.
I watched the sun crawl across the floorboards. Slowly, the golden light turned into a deep orange, then a bruised purple, before finally fading into a grey that felt like ash. I watched every second of it. I sat there until my legs went numb and my back ached, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the rot spreading in my chest
