Lucy (Scarlett’s mother)

Many years ago.

I tried to open my eyes, but they were impossibly heavy, as if sealed with lead.

Every nerve in my body was on fire, the searing pain washing over me like molten metal. Not just pain—this was torment, the kind that makes you pray for death as relief.

“Are you okay?” A voice penetrated the darkness, distant and muffled, like someone calling through thick fog. “Can you hear me?”

I battled the heavy pull of my eyelids, feeling desperate to escape this fleshly prison. My mind was screaming in frustration, unable to control a body that wouldn’t respond.

The voice spoke again, breaking through...