Esme's POV
It had gotten dark — I could feel it.
There was no window in this place, no sight of the moon, but the air itself told me. The cold had deepened, thicker somehow, like the world outside had gone to sleep while this hellhole stayed awake.
I sat on the damp floor, my arms raw from a slight pain. My back pressed against the wall, and I tried to steady my breathing. The cell was small, maybe ten feet across, with a rusted door that groaned whenever anyone passed outside.
The woman in the corner was trying to hush her crying baby now. The sound broke through the silence like glass, sharp and painful. The woman’s eyes were heavy, red-rimmed, exhaustion etched into every line of her face.
Her husband, or what used to be her husband, sat opposite her. His head kept hitting the wal
