A Coward's Return

~Soren~

I jerked awake. My eyes snapped open to a glaring white ceiling. The sterile, sharp smell of the clinic hit my nose, cutting through the thick, suffocating haze still lingering in my brain. My chest heaved. I sat bolt upright, my hands gripping the edge of the thin mattress. Panic clawed at my throat.

A woman with heavy tortoiseshell spectacles and bright red beads woven into her braids p