Her body felt as though it had been crushed beneath something immense an unbearable, suffocating weight. Pain. That was all that existed. It pulsed through her, relentless, consuming, as she struggled to open her eyes. But her eyelids refused to lift, as though they had been sealed shut. She couldn't move. Couldn't breathe properly. Her body lay unresponsive, trapped in a prison of its own making.
Still, she wasn't completely gone.
Voices drifted around her low, hushed murmurs, indistinct but present. People. There were people nearby.
She tried again, summoning every ounce of strength she had left, but her body betrayed her. It wouldn't obey. And then there it was. That presence. Strong. Familiar. It wrapped around her consciousness like a shadow she recognized deep within her soul.
And just like that, she slipped back into the darkness.
—
When Charlotte woke again, it was different.
