WOKE
Laura’s POV
Pain.
It didn’t arrive all at once—it slithered in, uncoiling slowly from the edges of my body like smoke curling through the cracks of a door. The dull throb in my side. The burn in my throat. The weight in my limbs.
Then came the noise.
Soft. Rhythmic. A mechanical beep… slow, steady.
A monitor on my right.
I found myself in a hospital.
A deep breath shuddered through me—too sharp, too sudden—and the pain spiked hard enough to steal it away again.
I winced, eyes fluttering open.
White. Everything was white. Blinding, sterile, terrifyingly still.
It took a moment for the blur to settle into sharpness. For the lines to stop swaying. For the sense of now to return.
And then I saw him.
Elijah.
He sat beside me—unkempt, eyes ringed with exhaustion, lips parted
