I barely remembered the rush up the stairs. It was only the sounds of pain and that I had developed for my tormentors that lingered. The hand was feeling numb, but the pain was there. So deep.

The cold of the floor and water still clung to my skin. My clothes were soaked and stuck to me like another layer of my skin, and my arm throbbed as if the bones were screaming. Yet, in the blur of pain, I could still feel his touch. The way he held me. The way he effortlessly dodged everything and everyone as he ran up the stairs and corridors.

He could see my...