Take a chill pill

The one bedroom apartment they rented still smelled faintly of paint and dust, but to Tessa it felt like paradise compared to the years of damp earth, iron chains, and whispers of death in the forest. She sat on the thin mattress that lay in the corner of the room, listening to Mariam humming softly as she stirred rice in a battered pot they had bought with part of Ayisha’s stolen money.

The windows were cracked open, letting in the noise of the city—children playing on ...