EWAN’S POV

The panic hit me like a freight train the moment Mother locked that door.

My chest tightened. My lungs forgot how to work properly. The darkness pressed against me from all sides, thick and suffocating. I threw myself at the door, pounding my fists against the rough wood until my knuckles split and bled.

"Let me out!" I screamed. "Mother, please! Let me out!"

But her footsteps were already fading away. She was leaving me here. She was abandoning me in the darkness. Again.

I slid ...