Rachael POV
I woke up slowly, my head heavy and my mouth dry as if I’d been swallowing dust for hours. For a moment, the fog in my mind convinced me I was still in the hospital. I waited for the familiar hum of the monitors, I tried to move my legs, expecting the dull, aching pain from the treatment to flare up in my joints.
Instead, the chair jerked under me.
Reality hit me like a quickly. The seat was hard, splintering wood, and it rattled against a floor that felt like cold surface. When I tried to pull my arms forward, rough hemp rope bit deep into my wrists, the friction searing my skin. I gasped, a sharp, panicked sound that died in my throat. My arms wouldn’t budge an inch. I looked down or tried to, and realized my ankles were lashed to the legs of the chair so tightly that my f
