The heavy iron door slammed shut at the top of the concrete stairs, and the echoing boom rattled through the small room like a thunderclap. Boris Dame was gone. He left me trapped in the pitch black once again, but I wasn't entirely alone in the room. Through the dim glare of the single bulb dangling from the ceiling, I could see the shape of the masked guard he had left behind to watch me. The man stood completely still by the exit, his heavy rifle held tightly across his chest like a statue.
My heart felt like it was breaking into pieces inside my ribs. Leo. The name of my baby boy kept running through my head in a frantic loop that threatened to steal my sanity. Boris's final words burned in my mind. He was going to kill Asher and take the breath from my son's lungs. He was going to make me watch it happen.
