Unforgiving Dawn

Valerie’s POV

The sound of my gasp was loud in the silence, sharp as if I had torn the stillness apart with my own breath. For a moment I thought it would go unnoticed, swallowed by the endless heaviness of the cell, but it didn’t. Chains rattled softly in the shadows, groans echoed as bodies shifted, and one by one, faint voices stirred awake around me.

“What was that?” someone whispered hoarsely