Iyisha came back to herself with a violent jolt, breath tearing into her lungs as if she had been dropped from a height, her body jerking hard enough that the wire bit into her shoulder, pain flaring sharp and immediate, grounding her in a way nothing else could.
She did not know if she had slept or if her mind had simply shut off to survive.
There was no sense of how much time had passed.
Seconds. Minutes. Hours.
The first thing she registered was sound.
Sobs.
Broken. Gasping. Ragged enough that at first she thought it was her own breathing echoing back at her, some delayed aftershock of panic still trapped in her chest, but then another sound cut through it, lower, strained, followed by a sharp intake of breath that ended in a choked whimper.
Her stomach dropped.
