_Aaron's POV_
Darkness.
It was endless. Thick, suffocating, and cold.
Then came the fire. Blazing pain behind my eyes, crawling across my skull like molten steel poured into cracked bone. I gasped, or at least I thought I did, but no air filled my lungs. I was drowning inside my own mind, sinking deeper and deeper into a place I couldn’t control.
Then, I heard a voice. It was familiar and it cut through the chaos like a thread of light.
“He’s fighting. He’s still in there.”
Then silence again.
The next time I surfaced, there were scents. Antiseptic, herbs, ash, something sharp and metallic. It was blood. My blood.
I forced my eyes open. My vision blurred, but I could make out the edges of the ceiling, the soft glow of lamplight casting elongated shadows on the walls. Something warm
