Blake’s POV

Hospitals have a smell.

Not the clean kind people pretend it is. Not fresh or sterile or calm. It smells like metal and fear and something sharp that sits in the back of your throat and refuses to leave. It smells like the moment before bad news.

I hate it.

I hate the lights. Too bright. Too white. Like they are trying to burn every shadow out of the place. I hate the sound of machines beeping somewhere down the hall, steady and cold and reminding you that bodies are fragile ...