The bolts clanged, the sound echoing through my bones. I stiffened on the chair, eyes glancing to the door as it creaked open. And the spirit, the beautiful, glowing spirit that had stood in the room before me only moments ago was gone. She had vanished, as though she had never been there at all. My chest tensed. Had I imagined her? Or did she slip away, retreating into whatever corner of this cursed place she came from?
Two men entered, they were different from the ones that stole me from Marcus’s house, they stood tall and broad, their movements looked sharp and rehearsed. Their black uniforms were plain and they didn’t speak. Their eyes never softened. And behind them followed a woman in pale scrubs, her face blank, eyes hollow as if she had long since given up her humanity. A nurse, I
