Emily
Screams shred over me in the darkness. Tatiana’s ragged voice rising above the scrabble of male voices taking her away. The sound of wholesale destruction rises until I think my skull will shatter under the weight of it.
It’s a dream, I tell myself through gritted teeth. You’re having a dream.
But no matter how hard I try, I can’t force myself awake. I’m stuck here in this terrible limbo, knowing I’m trapped in a vision but unable to wrench myself free.
The chaos beyond my hiding spot peaks, then falls into a sickening echo that reverberates through my bones. The air around me has gone still, but the dreadful cacophony rips at me from the inside.
Moving on their own through the dark, my fingers find the lever to swing the door open again. I’ve been here before, so I’m unafraid of what will happen if I’m taken. All the same, I have to steel myself against the sight I know is waiting for me.
It’s worse than I remember.