He let go.
The sudden absence of his grip was so unexpected it almost felt unreal, like the air itself had shifted.
My chin throbbed where his fingers had dug in, but the pressure was gone.
Relief rushed in—
And vanished just as quickly.
Before I could even draw a full breath, his hands seized my arms with rough, violent force.
A sharp gasp tore from my throat as he wrenched them behind my back, forcing my shoulders into a painful angle that made my muscles scream in protest.
“Ah—!”
Cold metal snapped shut around my wrists, the unmistakable clicks echoing one after the other before the realization struck me—handcuffs.
The realization settled heavy and suffocating in my chest.
The chain between them tightened as he pulled my arms higher, the metal biting into my skin, unforgiving and deliberate.
My first instinct was to struggle.
To fight.
To twist free—
But I stopped myself.
What was the point?
I couldn’t see him. Couldn’t predict his movements. Couldn’t calculate distance or timing the way I usually could with everything else in my life.
Blindness didn’t make me weak.
But in this moment—
It made escape nearly impossible.
So I stilled.
Forced my breathing to steady.
Words were all I had left.
He dragged me backward across the room.
My heels scraped against the floor, unbalanced, disoriented, my shoulder joints protesting sharply with every step he forced me to take.
Then—
He shoved me hard.
I fell into the armchair awkwardly, the impact knocking the air from my lungs as my bound hands trapped behind me twisted painfully against the backrest.
A broken breath escaped me.
The cushions that once felt safe now felt like a cage.
