Maya’s POV

I wake up slowly, my senses hazy, the darkness pressing against my skin like a suffocating blanket. My head aches fiercely, a dull throb pulsating behind my eyes. Every breath I take is shallow, shallow enough that I feel like I might drown in the stale air of this cold, damp cell.

The last thing I remember is the chaos—the shouting, the running, the feeling of being ripped away from everything familiar. But now? Now, it’s just silence. Heavy, ...