Elizabeth's POV
Sleep was a stranger that night. I lay wide-eyed in the dark, the glow of my phone screen casting faint shadows across the wall. Every few minutes, I’d unlock it, scroll through my empty inbox, then toss it aside—only to snatch it back again, just in case the anonymous texter texted again. My body was exhausted, but my mind refused to rest.
The scar on my arm pulsed like a second heartbeat, a cruel reminder that the past wasn’t done with me. I traced it through the fabric of my sleeve, my chest tightening with each slow drag of my fingertip. It was a wound I couldn’t bandage, a truth I couldn’t tell.
By dawn, my eyes burned from unshed tears. I splashed cold water on my face before heading to class, hiding the shadows beneath my eyes with a smile that fooled no one but
