Dre’s POV — Present Tense

The shower is scorching hot, but I can’t feel it.

Steam floods the bathroom, thick and suffocating, blurring the edges of everything. I brace my palms against the tile, water pounding down my spine as I try—god, I try—to breathe normally. To think clearly. To be myself.

But something’s wrong.

Something’s shifting inside me.

I shut my eyes.

Mist curls around my lungs like hands.

A memory rises—sharp, uninvited.

A cold room.

Straps.

A light too ...