*Audra's POV*
Morning came grey and cold.
I woke up to the sting of circulation returning, a slow, burning ache that crept through my arms and settled deep in my shoulders. My wrists throbbed where the ropes rubbed skin raw. My mouth was dry, my tongue heavy and bitter.
A thin blade of light cut through the cracks in the wooden wall, too pale to be real sunlight, just enough to remind me there was still a world outside this place. It wasn't enough to tell where I was, or how long I'd been here. Morning, I guessed.
Or something close to it.
My body protested every small movement, but I shifted anyway, trying to ease the numbness in my legs. The chair felt harder against my back. The air smelled of damp wood, old oil, and something faintly metallic, the scent of rust, probably
