That one hurt more than I expected. She was always therein the background—sharp-eyed, relentless, asking questions no one wanted answered.
If Ronan couldn’t save her…
What chance did any of us have?
The sound system crackles again.
Static.
Breathing.
I flinch so hard my shoulders scream.
“Please,” I whisper before I can stop myself. “Please don’t hurt them—”
The breathing turns into a sob.
A man begging.
Not me this time.
Somewhere else.
I squeeze my eyes shut.
I can’t listen to this again.
I can’t.
A scream tears through the walls.
Longer than the others.
It doesn’t cut off.
It just… fades.
My chest tightens painfully.
That scream stays with me.
It crawls into my head and curls up there, heavy and suffocating.
I start shaking.
Not from cold.
From exhaustion.
From grief.
From the slow, creeping certainty that this is all there is now.
They come for me an hour later.
I know because the footsteps stop outside my cell.
The door opens.
