*Audra's POV*
The light that slipped through the cracks of the shed was thin, cold, almost metallic—enough to outline the shape of the ropes, the shadow of my figure in the chair, slouched, small, the dust moving slow as snow through the air.
The ropes had left shallow grooves around my wrists, raw in some places.
I'd learned to shift my weight when the pain grew too sharp, small movements, quiet ones, so the chair wouldn't creak. My shoulders throbbed, but I barely noticed anymore. It was the waiting that hurt most.
The stillness.
He'd been gone for hours. Or minutes. I wasn't sure.
I'd tried counting the gaps in the light that slid through the wall, the subtle shift in brightness, but everything blurred. The call had been in the early morning. Now it felt like the middle of the day, maybe later. My stomach tightened, hollow.
