61. Black Rose

[LIZZY]

If there’s anything worse than waking up in a dark room, feeling frightened and alone, it’s opening your eyes to blinding brightness and scorching heat, with someone poking at you like you’re some sort of lab experiment.

“Hey, wake up!” the same voice that has been slashing through my sleep, faintly at first and now loud enough to make me want to crawl back to cool slumber, arrives again and jolts me out of my skull.

“God, how much did they doze you with? This is getting boring.” The voice continued.

I try to blink, but my eyelashes refuse to cooperate. They feel like they’ve been glued together, making me dread the idea of forcing them open and potentially losing my sight. Or worse, the dread that someone could have actually glued my lashes together just to mess with me. I can’t imagine someone being that heartless.

“Please, don’t be so heartless,” I murmur to myself, my voice barely audible even to me.

“What?” the voice asks again, sounding irritated. “What did you say?”

I w