Third Person POV
Seraphina was brought back ho by lissa on the occasion of her grandmother’s birthday, dressed up like a doll, and told to smile as if nothing had ever happened. Everyone thought she had been staying in a quiet ntal hospital, resting, recovering, getting "better."
Only lissa knew the whole truth, and even her mother had no idea of the whole picture.
Because Seraphina hadn’t been kept in a simple ntal hospital.
She had been locked in a place that looked normal from the outside but was hell on the inside. A place where she couldn’t breathe freely, where screams never reached outside walls, where no one left as the sa person they were when they entered.
The people there made sure that even after Seraphina escaped or left that place, she couldn’t even pretend to live normally. Before going there, she was already fragile and fearful, trying to make a place for herself in this cruel world.
But after she returned... she didn’t even lift her eyes to et anyone’s gaze. She walked carefully, trying to be as invisible as possible, flinching at every breath near her.
Seraphina had already been through a lot in there, the room 420, but...
But what truly broke her from the inside was Emma’s death.
Emma was the only one who had cared for her and looked for her. She had learned that Seraphina was sent to a ntal hospital, but she never imagined the reality behind those locked doors. When she finally went to see Sera... she couldn’t believe what she walked into.
Seraphina wasn’t in therapy. She wasn’t in treatnt.
Instead, she was being destroyed physically, sexually, ntally; She was being broken slowly and gradually.
For the first ti in her life, Sera opened up to soone. Her voice had shaken, but she still told Emma everything. She didn’t just bared her pain to Emma... she even bared her body, the sa body covered in burns, whip marks, and scars that they never let heal.
Emma broke. She cried in rage, she held Seraphina so tightly that Sera almost believed she wasn’t alone anymore. Emma promised she’d help her, that she’d get her out. She had sworn that she’d burn down the world if she didn’t get the justice she deserved.
But then... she never ca back.
Days passed, then weeks and months. Seraphina waited like a trapped bird, staring at the door, praying for the news to co.
And then, a month ago, while they were preparing her like a puppet for Old Madam Lancaster’s birthday, lissa finally told her the "news."
Emma’s family had gone bankrupt. Her parents died in an accident. Her cousin passed away, too, who was helping her with the dicine behind the scenes.
And Emma—Emma was "in a coma," barely alive. As good as dead.
Those words shattered Seraphina’s world. Her chest tightened until she couldn’t breathe.
She wanted to run to Emma, to see her, to confirm it with her own eyes. But how could she? She was a bird or a slave in a cage. Her body wasn’t hers. Her movent belonged to lissa.
And lissa made sure Sera remained silent.
She said that if Seraphina dared disobey even once, Emma would die within seconds. They would pull the plug at the hospital, and no one would know how Emma died in silence.
They fed Seraphina lie after lie until she couldn’t tell what was real anymore.
And the one person she trusted, her best friend, Emma, was already gone long before Sera even knew.
That was why she stayed quiet and followed orders, never imagining fighting back.
Because in her heart... she thought Emma was still fighting sowhere for her.
But Emma had died long before Seraphina ever walked out of that place.
And Sera had been forced to dance to their tune, believing she was protecting the only friend she ever had.
Now, even when she was out of that hell and was able to breathe properly, lissa had not left her alone. She had been continuously torturing her even her family, her own brother was like that.
What Seraphina had not expected was Adrian to stand up for her the way he did.
The way he said he missed her... the way he said Alistair wanted her too... and he swore he’d find her no matter where she was, those words didn’t just surprise her; they ignited a hope in her heart.
She wanted to know if they’d accept her if they knew how dirty she was. Would they help ? Or they’d just let her be? She didn’t have the guts to ask.
Sera had lived at a place that not only stained her body but also her soul.
But still for a mont, she hoped that the warmth from Adrian and Alistair would last a little longer.
Her chest tightened, and a warm, fuzzy feeling enveloped her that she had not felt for a long ti.
She wanted to be loved and taken care of. Her heart yearned to believe that soone still cared about her.
However, that feeling didn’t last long as lissa walked in, crushing all the hope that had sprouted in her heart.
Everything inside Seraphina collapsed. Her fingers curled in on themselves, nails digging into her palms until they stung. She was so scared that her breath caught in her throat. Her knees weakened as if they couldn’t hold her weight anymore.
Just lissa’s presence in the sa look made her body rember the terror before her mind did.
Just one look at lissa was enough to shove her straight back into that dark room.
That sa suffocating room she had been locked in.
That store room she lived in was so small that it only fitted her to sit or lie down. But when they wanted to play with her, they’d open the big room.
She could almost sll the damp walls again, the rotting mattress, the stench of sweat and smoke.
She could hear the lock clicking shut and her voice being muffled.
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