The Price of Defiance

~SIENNA POV~

Days melted into nights until the hours lost all meaning. My life shrank down to the borders of this grand, suffocating estate. The ticking clocks mounted on the walls sounded dull and distant, like heartbeats underwater. I had tried staying silent, hoping quiet compliance would act like armor. It didn't. Instead, silence grew like poison, and my thoughts kept circling back to the di