Unbind me

chapter 15

I'm trapped. Frozen. Pressed against a wall, my breath caught in my throat. The air is thick with dust, the sharp scent of burnt metal stinging my nose.

Someone is crying.

A child. A boy. His tiny, gasping sobs are muffled, but I hear them.

"Please—please, she didn't do anything!"

A slap. A sharp gasp. The sobs stop.

"Shut up."

The darkness shifts, a figure stepping into the dim light. Their face is blurred, twisted, unreadable.

"Bring her to me."

Hands grab me. Wrench me forward. I try to fight, try to scream, but my voice is gone, stolen by fear.

"You thought you could run?"

A blade presses against my throat.

"You belong to us."

And then—

Pain.

White-hot. Searing.

The pain fades, swallowed by the darkness, but the nightmare doesn't let me go.

I'm somewhere else now.

The air is thick and damp, clinging to my skin like a second layer. My bare feet slap against the cold ground as I run, my breath coming in short, panicked bursts. The walls around me are endless—tall, made of steel, slick with condensation. There's no sky here. No stars. Just metal and shadows.

"Keep running."

A voice whispers through the corridor. It's soft, almost gentle.

I know better than to trust it.

"You think you can escape?"

The ground shifts beneath me. The walls close in. I trip, stumbling forward, my hands scraping against the rough floor. I don't have time to feel the pain.

I hear them coming.

"You were never meant to leave."

I push myself up, forcing my legs to move. My lungs burn, my muscles scream, but I run.

"There is nowhere to go."

The corridor twists, turns, narrows. The whispers grow louder, the voices multiplying, overlapping.

"You were made for this."

"You don't belong out there."

"You belong to us."

A bright light floods the tunnel ahead. I race toward it, desperate, reaching—

Only to slam into an invisible wall.

I fall back, gasping, staring in horror as the light flickers and dies, swallowed by the darkness.

"There is no escape, Seraphina."

The voices melt into laughter. Cold, cruel.

A figure steps forward, but I can't see their face.

I know they're smiling.

"Time to wake up."

And then hands—familiar, unrelenting—grab my shoulders, dragging me down.

I jolt awake, a sharp gasp tearing from my throat. My hands fly up, ready to fight, ready to push away the hands dragging me down—

But it's only Kenji.