Playing Dead

Valerie's POV

The room was dark. Not the kind of darkness that made you sleepy—this one made you alert. Still. A kind of silence that pressed against my ears, like it wanted to say something but didn’t know how.

I sat up, blinking. My heart hadn’t started racing yet. Not immediately. I just stared ahead, trying to figure out what was off. Something was. I could feel it.

The air had changed.

It was