Chapter One
Star
Pain dragged me up out of the dark.
It wasn’t sharp.Not at first.It was dull and heavy, like my head had been wrapped in wet wool and squeezed.The kind of pain that pulsed instead of screamed.
I groaned, or at least I thought I did.The sound barely made it past my throat.
Where…?
The room was dim, washed in soft gray light that didn’t quite come from anywhere specific.It took a second for my eyes to focus, and even then, everything swam.Shadows blurred at the corners, stretching and shrinking when I blinked.My head throbbed harder when I tried to think, so I stopped.
Hospital.
The smell hit me next.Clean, sharp, and unmistakable.Antiseptic and plastic and something faintly metallic.Underneath it all was a hum of machines, maybe.A steady beeping somewhere close, like it was keeping time for my breathing.
I lay there, staring at the ceiling tiles.Off-white.Maybe beige.They had tiny cracks in them that looked like veins if you stared too long.
My body felt… wrong.
Heavy.Like every inch of me had been bruised and then pressed too hard.My stomach was the worst.A deep, sick soreness that made me instinctively draw my knees just a fraction closer before I realized moving hurt too much to be worth it.
My head throbbed again but sharper this time.
I swallowed and winced when even that pulled pain through my skull.
Okay.
Hospital.
Hurt.
Alive.
That last one mattered.
I tried to move my hands and managed a weak twitch of my fingers.The sheet rustled slightly.
I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for a wave of nausea to pass.
When I opened them again, I noticed something else.
I was alone.
That… wasn’t right.
The rare few times I’d surfaced, there had always been someone there.My mom.Alice.Karmen.One of the girls sitting too close to the bed, whispering like I might break if they spoke too loudly.
But now the chair beside my bed was empty.
No purse on the floor.No jacket draped over the back.No low murmurs or hushed voices.
Just the hum of machines and the faint squeak of rubber soles somewhere down the hallway.
Panic fluttered in my chest, weak but insistent.
Mom?
