POV: Ayla

I close the door on all three of them with a quiet click. It is somehow worse than any scream I could have thrown at them. The sound settles into the room and stays there. I stand with my back against the wood for a long moment, breathing through the heat that is rising in my chest. Then I walk to the middle of the floor and sit down.

I do not scream. I do not throw anything. I just sit with my knees drawn up and my arms wrapped around them and I let everything I am feeling come forward without trying to push it down. The...