#Chapter 180: The Cage of Voices

Amelia I didn’t know how long I had been there. Time didn’t work the same way anymore. There were no windows, no clocks, no rhythm to the light. Only the sound of whispers and the slow, ever-present pulse of my heartbeat. Sometimes they strapped me to a table, and sometimes they let me walk in circles around a featureless stone room. Sometimes I dreamed I was back in the Pack House, lying beside Richard, and when I opened my eyes, I realized the dream had been part of the cage too. It hadn’t come from me. It had been constructed, too sweet and too gentle. A memory I was meant to miss, long for, ache over. I woke confused, empty, and colder than before. They didn’t always speak aloud. The voices came in layers, like threads winding through my mind. Some were gentle, almost maternal. Others were cruel, sneering, drilling holes into my certainty. Most of them sounded like Serena. Not the real Serena, not the woman I had pieced together from scattered stories, but some distorted ve