The hospital room had grown quieter. Dennis and Amayrah were asleep again, curled together on the couch with a blanket wrapped around them. The nurse had just finished her last round for the evening, and now the only sounds were the steady beeping of the monitor and the soft hum of the air condition.
Damian sat by Maya's side, his fingers lightly brushing her wrist. She was awake, resting against the pillows, her expression calm but thoughtful. For a while, neither of them said anything. There was a heaviness in the air—one they both had felt growing for days.
"Damian," she said softly, turning her head toward him, "can you tell me everything now?"
He looked up, and though he had been expecting this, it still knocked the breath out of him.
"You deserve the truth," he said after a long pause. "All of it."
Maya nodded. "Please. I need to know what happened to me… how I ended up so far away from all of you. I keep getting flashes, but they don't make sense."
