In the women's dorm, on the fourth floor, in a room whose door had been barricaded with a wardrobe, an overturned desk, and two beds shoved together, four girls sat in the kind of silence that had become their daily life. It wasn't discipline. It was fear - fear that any unnecessary sound might pull something in from the corridor.
Julia was the first to move to the window. She slid the curtain aside by only two fingers' width, because she'd learned that even a shadow could betray you.
"They're there…" she whispered, her voice choked and tight at the same time. "Someone's actually fighting downstairs."
Karolina shot up from the bed more suddenly than she should have - and then froze instantly as the springs creaked dangerously loud.
"Seriously?" she whispered, edging closer.
Julia nodded.
"Seriously…"
Marta, who'd been sitting with her knees drawn up under her chin, staring at the door like she could reinforce it with sheer will, lifted her head.
