Soren
The room was silent, but inside me, chaos reigned. My chest tightened as my eyes fixed on the address written in looping handwriting on the slip of paper the boy had given me.
The more I stared at it, the less coherent it became, blurring and fading as though the ink itself wanted to disappear. My breathing quickened, too fast for my heart to take.
I tried to focus, but the room felt smaller, the walls pressing in. I couldn't pull air into my lungs no matter how hard I tried. My heart pounded like a war drum, each beat echoed in my ears. I gripped the edge of the desk, my knuckles whitening as I fought the rising tide of panic.
I felt tears threatening to leak from my eyes.
"Soren," Rowan's voice broke through the fog, "What's wrong?"
I couldn't answer him. My throat was locked tight, the words stuck somewhere between my frayed nerves and the crushing weight of memories I'd spent years burying.
