Isabella's POV
Darkness pressed against my eyelids, thick and suffocating, a silence so complete it felt like a force of its own, wrapping around me, swallowing me whole. My body ached in places I couldn't name, a deep, pulsing soreness that spread through my limbs like poison, as if something had been ripped from me and replaced with a hollowness I could never fill. My fingers twitched against the rough fabric beneath me, stiff and cold, my skin unfamiliar, as though it no longer belonged to me.
A distant echo of voices filtered through the void, low and urgent, tangled in an unrecognizable rhythm. A metallic scent clung to the air, sharp and bitter, coating the back of my throat like rusted iron, making each breath feel heavier than the last. I forced my eyelids open, a slow, dragging movement that sent fresh waves of pain rolling through my skull, the world around me a blur of shifting shadows and streaks of dim light.
