Chapter 52
BITS AND PIECES
The world is thick.
It presses against me from every side. My eyelids are heavy. So heavy that the thought of opening them can’t even begin to form. My body doesn’t answer when I beg it to move. Every breath drags slow, foreign, like someone is breathing for me.
Fragments of voices miles away leak through the fog in broken threads.
“…not safe…training wing…”
Maverick. His voice, sharp even when blurred, cuts into me.
“…reset…again…”
Reset. The word digs sharper than the straps, phantom bands biting into wrists I can’t feel. My chest fights, but nothing stirs. I’m locked inside myself.
“…she won’t survive another…”
That voice is Carr’s. Flat. Final. I can’t tell if it’s real or if I’ve dreamed it.
“…fifty days…”
Fifty echoes again. Then again. Each one farther away. Fifty days until—what?
“…Harrow…oversee…”
Harrow. Vincent Harrow.
They said his name. I know it.
The sounds blur together after that. Too far. Too muffled. My mind claws for them, but my consciousness lulls back toward nothingness.
I can’t move. Can’t open my eyes. Can’t cry. All I can do is listen. And the words don’t leave me.
Not safe. Reset. Survive. Fifty. Harrow.
The darkness welcomes me home.