I wake up screaming.
My throat burns like I've been tearing myself apart from the inside, and when my eyes snap open, the ceiling above me isn't familiar. It's white—too white—unmarked except for a thin crack running down the center like something tried to split it open and failed.
My heart is slamming so hard it hurts.
I don't know where I am.
I don't know how I got here.
And worst of all—I don't know who I am for three full seconds.
The panic hits late, then all at once.
I sit up too fast, the room tilting violently. My head throbs, a deep, pulsing ache behind my eyes, like I've been crying for days or screaming into something that didn't answer. My hands shake as I drag them down my face.
Something is wrong.
That thought doesn't feel new.
It feels remembered.
The bed beneath me is unfamiliar—soft, expensive. The room smells faintly of antiseptic and something darker underneath it, metallic, like blood that's been scrubbed away too hard.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and freeze.
There are faint red marks around my wrists.
Not cuts.
Pressure marks.
Like someone held me there.
My breath stutters. "No," I whisper, though I don't know what I'm refusing to believe.
A door opens behind me.
I don't hear it—just suddenly feel the presence, the shift in the air. My skin prickles. Every instinct I have screams danger, sharp and immediate, even though I can't remember why.
"You're awake."
His voice is calm. Too calm.
I turn slowly.
He's tall, dressed in black like it's a habit rather than a choice. His sleeves are rolled up, revealing forearms corded with muscle and faint scars that don't look accidental. His face is sharp, controlled—handsome in a way that feels intentional, like he's learned how to look harmless.
But his eyes ruin it.
They're dark, steady, watching me like he's been waiting.
Relief flickers across his face when he sees me conscious. Real relief. Then it's gone, smoothed away so quickly I almost think I imagined it.
"Easy, Noa," he says gently. "You scared me."
My name lands like a slap.
"How do you know my name?" I ask.
The room goes very quiet.
He studies me for a moment longer than necessary, like he's recalculating something in his head. Then he steps closer—slowly, carefully, like I might bolt.
"I'm Elias," he says. "You're safe."
Every nerve in my body disagrees.
"Where am I?" My voice shakes despite my effort to control it. "Why does my head feel like it's been torn open?"
Elias exhales through his nose, a controlled breath. "You had an episode."
An episode.
The word feels rehearsed.
"What kind of episode?" I demand.
"The kind where you hurt yourself," he replies quietly.
My stomach drops.
"I didn't—"
"You don't remember," he interrupts, not unkindly. "That's normal."
Normal.
Nothing about this feels normal.
I stand, swaying slightly. He moves instantly, hand hovering near my arm but not touching me. The restraint is unsettling—like he's used to stopping himself.
I glance around the room, desperate for something familiar. There's a dresser, a mirror, a chair with a neatly folded jacket on it.
A woman's jacket.
Mine?
I stagger to the mirror.
The girl staring back at me looks haunted.
Dark circles under her eyes. Lips bitten raw. There's a faint bruise along her collarbone, half-hidden by the loose hospital gown I'm wearing.
I press my hand to the glass.
"I don't remember hurting myself," I whisper.
Elias appears behind me in the reflection.
"I know," he says.
"Then how do you know I did?"
His jaw tightens.
"Because I was there."
The words crawl under my skin.
Slowly, I turn to face him. "Then tell me what happened."
He hesitates.
Just a fraction of a second—but I see it.
"Noa," he says carefully, "you begged me not to tell you."
Cold spreads through my chest.
"I begged you… what?"
"Before," he replies. "You said if you woke up asking questions, it meant it worked."
My vision blurs.
"What worked?"
His gaze locks onto mine, intense now, unflinching.
"You asked me to erase it," Elias says.
My heart stops.
"Erase what?"
He steps closer, lowering his voice as if the walls might hear.
"The parts of you that couldn't survive the truth."