Alicia POV

I paced up and down the cell, rubbing my arms to create even a fraction of friction to generate heat. It wasn’t helping, nothing was helping. I hated being holed up here like an animal, manifesting into the very thing my abusers molded me to be. It was their scorn and violence that whittled me down to this. And after all I had suffered, I was bearing the brunt. I wasn’t a good enough victim so they made me into a villain.

I was on the brink of a ...