Kimberly
The world came back in fragments as I opened my eyes slowly.
First, the cold. Damp and bitter, seeping through my clothes and into my bones. Then the smell—mildew, rot, and something metallic. Blood? My blood? I wasn’t sure.
I tried to move, but my arms screamed in protest. My wrists were raw, bound by thick cords strung to rusted iron hooks. I was seated against a wall, ankles shackled, knees stiff. Darkness pressed in around me, broken only by the flicker of a single lantern swinging from a beam overhead.
A groan escaped me before I could stop it. My head throbbed like it had been cracked open. I remembered… walking to the garden. Sunlight. A breeze. A voice—too familiar. A cloth pressed to my nose.
Then nothing.
Panic struck like lightning.
The baby.
My hands fumbled
