Ethan’s POV
The darkness was starting to feel alive.
It shifted and breathed around me, heavy and suffocating, pressing against my skin. The blindfold was so tight that even the tiniest flicker of light couldn’t seep through. I’d tried to rub it against my shoulder, to loosen it, but the fabric only dug deeper into my temples, leaving a throbbing ache behind my eyes.
At first, the darkness had been terrifying. Now, after what I guessed were days, it was maddening. It ate away at me, hollowing me out, until my thoughts started looping back on themselves in strange, broken patterns.
I didn’t know how long I’d been here. Hours? Days? My body ached all over, my throat was dry and raw, and the ropes had rubbed my skin until it burned. They untied me only when necessary, brief, clinical mome
