Elle POV
Darkness wasn’t just around me.
It was in me.
Thick. Heavy. Alive.
The restraints kept me arched back against the cold table, my breath trembling through the gag with every exhale. I couldn’t move more than an inch. The collar pressed into my throat each time I swallowed. My legs strained uselessly, held wide by chains that clinked quietly with every shiver.
But the silence he left behind was worse than the bindings.
He’d walked away.
Left me—bound, blind, gagged—without a second thought.
Blake had never seemed so monstrous.
And yet… never so human.
Minutes stretched.
Then hours.
Or maybe only moments. It was impossible to tell, trapped in a world of darkness and metal and my own heartbeat.
My fear pulsed loudest.
Fear of him.
Fear of myself.
Fear of how much I wan
