The cold was the first thing Reese The Ram understood.

It crept into her bones through the thin, stained concrete beneath the pad. The “bed” was nothing more than a stained square of foam barely thick enough to separate her skin from the floor. Reese lay on her side, wrists free, but her ankles secured in steel cuffs bolted to a short chain fixed into the ground.

Every small movement echoed. Metal scraped concrete. Breath fogged in the dim air. Somewhere far beyond the door, voices murmured. Not English.

The words were sharp and clipped, unfamiliar. Muffled by walls. Too distant to make sense of. Every now and then, a burst of laughter- low, rough- bounced down the corridor like a warning.

She swallowed.

How long had she been here?

There were no windows. No cr*cks of sunlight. Time had dissolved into the steady rhythm of her own pulse.

Her ankles b*rned from the weight of the cuffs. The metal was cold- so cold it felt like it had fused with her skin. When she tested the chain gently, it answered with a short, unforgiving clink.

Not long enough to reach the door. Not long enough to stand upright without tension. Her heart thudded harder.

Memory came in fragments.

A hallway.

A sharp smell, chemical and metallic.

Darkness from being hooded in transportation.

Then here.

She pushed herself upright slowly, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth. The concrete walls were bare except for scratches- old tally marks carved by someone else’s desperate fingernails. The sight of them made her stomach tighten.

Someone had counted days here. The air tasted stale. A heavy door somewhere down the corridor slammed shut. Boots moved. The foreign voices rose again, closer this time. Closer.

Her breath hitched. She tried to steady herself, pressing her back against the wall. The chain rattled softly as she shifted. Don’t panic. Panic would w*ste oxygen. W*ste strength.

But fear doesn’t listen to reason.

It crawled up her spine as the footsteps stopped outside her door. A shadow p*ssed beneath the thin strip of light at the threshold. Keys jangled. Her pulse roared in her ears so loudly she barely heard the lock turn.

What did they want?

Why was she here?

The door creaked open just enough for light from the hallway to cut across the floor like a blade. She squinted, unable to see faces- only silhouettes.

The voices spoke again. Calm. Casual. As if she were not a person but a task. One of them stepped inside. Reese pulled the thin fabric around herself instinctively, though it offered no protection.

Cold.

Confusion.

Silence.

The chain felt heavier now. The unknown pressed in harder than the concrete walls.

And as the door shut behind the guard, sealing her in once more in the smell of dust, st*ne and steel, one truth settled in her chest:

Whatever was coming next...

She would have to survive it.

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