Page 89 of Grim

Not the same one.

Smaller. Colder. Bars closer together. No dripping water this time — just silence.

But her mind, already unraveling, didn’t register the difference.

It was just another box.

Another place to disappear.

They shoved her inside and slammed the door. The lock clicked with a finality that made her knees buckle.

Sophia hit the floor hard, palms scraping against the cold concrete. The sound of the lock echoed down the corridor, bouncing off the walls, stretching into something that felt endless.

She crawled to the bars, gripping them with shaking hands.

“Please,” she whispered, voice cracking. “Please don’t leave me here.”

But the men were already walking away, their footsteps fading, fading, fading until they were swallowed by the dark.

The lights dimmed. The corridor fell silent. The cold crept back in, sliding over her skin like a second layer.

Sophia pressed her forehead to the bars, breath trembling. The metal was freezing, biting into her skin. She didn’t pull away.

She couldn’t.

The silence was worse than the footsteps. Worse than Viper’s voice. Worse than the interrogation room.

At least there, someone spoke. Here, there was nothing.

Nothing but silence and cold. Nothing but the dark pressing in from all sides.

She wrapped her arms around herself, but it didn’t help. The cage was too small to stretch out, too narrow to lie down comfortably, too dark to see more than a few inches in front of her.

Her breath fogged in the air.

She wasn’t weak. She wasn’t helpless. But she was terrified.

The isolation clawed at her mind, whispering things she didn’t want to hear.

Her family had been loud, messy, impossible to ignore. This silence felt like death — like she was disappearing one breath at a time.

What if Maddox doesn’t find you?

She’d always been the one who found others, the one who fixed things, who held everyone together. She didn’t know how to be the one waiting to be saved.

What if he’s too late? What if he thinks you’re already dead? What if you die here alone?

Her chest tightened. She pressed her fist to her mouth to keep from sobbing.

The cage felt smaller. The air felt thinner. The darkness felt alive.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to breathe, trying to stay grounded, trying not to let the panic swallow her whole.

Her voice wouldn’t come. The fear was too tight, too sharp, too close. But the thought rose anyway, desperate and quiet.

Maddox… please don’t let me disappear.

The darkness swallowed the thought whole.