By the time the eighth hour crawled into the room like a thief who'd already stolen my patience, my sanity, and every last ounce of dignity I'd ever pretended to own, I had officially stopped believing in time. Time wasn't real. Time was a cruel invention cooked up by sadists who'd never once tried to shove two entire human beings out of their body while some magical temporary vagina ticked away like a cursed hourglass set to "eternal torment."
"I have five hours," I rasped, voice cracking like dry leaves under boots.
"Five. Hours. That's what you guys said. Five hours and this would be over. I've been counting, Aiden. I've been counting like my life depends on it, because it literally does."
