Chapter 13: Return
Isaac abruptly opened his eyes, a silent scream trapped in his throat.
He didn't move.
His whole body froze, his breath suspended, as if waiting for something to strike again. For the whip to crack again. For the pain to return. For the foreman's voice to ring out, ordering him to get up when he couldn't. But nothing.
But nothing.
Just silence.
His gaze was hazy, haunted, lost in the darkness of his room. The reddish light of the digital alarm clock pierced the blackness, the numbers trembling under his misty eyes. Only one minute had passed.
One minute.
It couldn't be.
His fingers tightened on the sheets, squeezing the fabric until his knuckles whitened. He expected to feel the roughness of the stone floor, the dust sticking to his skin, moist with sweat and blood. But no... they were his sheets. His worn, but clean sheets. Her bed. His shabby apartment.
He was home. He was here.
So why was his heart still beating as if he were going to die?