Isabella’s POV

Fear changes the way time moves.

It stretches seconds into eternities and crushes hours into moments that vanish before you can hold on to them. In this room—this suffocating, decaying motel room where the walls seem to lean inward, and the ceiling hums with a sickly, flickering light—fear is alive. It breathes with me. It pulses in my ears. It crawls beneath my skin, sinking deep into my bones until I feel hollowed out from the inside. Leon is restless.

I hear him behind ...