No… not again…
My chest tightened, panic rising like it was choking me from the inside.
I hated this.
I hated small, closed spaces. Ever since I was young, it felt like the walls would press in, like the air would disappear. Like I was going to suffocate and no one would even know.
I used to tell him that.
“I hate the dark,” I said once. “If I ever live somewhere, I want it bright all the time.”
Back then, he actually listened. The villa was always lit up at night. I thought it meant something.
But now…
I curled into myself, my fingers digging into my arms as I tried to breathe.
“Calm down… just breathe…” I whispered to myself. “You’re fine… you’re fine…”
But I wasn’t. I really wasn’t.
Suddenly, the door creaked open and light slipped in. I flinched, squinting as a figure stepped inside.
Celine.
She looked down at me, her lips curling slightly.
“Wow,” she said, her tone full of contempt. “You really do look pathetic.”
I didn’t answer.
“If you didn’t look a little like me,” she continued, stepping closer, “Argus wouldn’t even look at you. Not once. Do you really think you ever mattered to him?”
My fingers clenched.