Prologue
[A previous victim, two months earlier]
She heard the turning of a key and quickly scrambled into the corner. Her body folded down hard–limbs close, bare skin tucked in, bald head buried behind her arms, back pressing into the cold concrete as if she tried to merge into the wall.
With eyes bloodshot and half-blind from all the crying and the ever-present radiance, she couldn’t really see him. Just a dark shape against the whiteness that had burned itself into her brain, never truly going away, not even when she was trying to sleep.
Still, she hid her face, not wanting to catch even a glimpse of his. She barely even remembered what he had looked like, before—the fire had erased everything.
If she’d forget him completely, perhaps everything else would follow.
He stopped a foot away, towering over her. He wouldn’t touch her, had never done it since she stopped resisting and did everything he told her, like a quiet, trembling, helpless robot. But she could still feel his hands on every inch of her skin.
“We’re done here. It’s gone for good. It’s time for you to go, too.”
He waited, his extended hand more felt than seen, hovering like an unfinished bridge into nothingness. He could’ve picked her up with one arm and carried her wherever he wanted, but he seemed to prefer her to make those last steps on her own.
But he was right; he had taken everything from her already, and the voices in her head were getting restless from sleep deprivation. It was about time for her to step out. Into the darkness.
She forced herself to reach out and take his hand.
