And then, it hit her suddenly.
Zack.
His birthday had passed while she was lost in this strange, forced slumber and forced to travel without consent across oceans.
The realization slammed into her chest, stealing the breath from her lungs. A fresh wave of anguish swelled inside her, a crushing, suffocating weight that coiled around her ribs like an iron vice.
She had missed it.
She had missed him.
The thought sent a sharp, stinging pain through her heart, deeper than the realization of getting kidnapped and hauled across countries.
