#Chapter 203: The Unmaking

The overhead lights seared through the room, stark and clinical, making her flinch the moment her eyes opened. She blinked fast, unable to adjust, her lashes fluttering against the glare. Her hands curled against the cot’s frame, fingers twitching like she didn’t know how they got there, as though her brain hadn’t mapped her body back together yet. Her pupils stayed blown, her breathing shallow, and her skin had the clammy, feverish pallor of someone barely clinging to the edge of something she couldn’t name. When she tried to sit up, her torso pitched hard to the side. I lunged forward, catching the edge of the mattress as her shoulder collapsed into the cot. Her body recoiled at the contact, spine arching with the instinct of something hunted. “Where am I?” she asked, her voice dry and cracked. Neither of us answered. “Where... where am I?” she asked again, panic rising in her throat. Simon stood stiff near the corner, the tablet in his hands flickering with data. “She’