"Haha…"
The sound chased them long after the cell door had vanished behind iron turns and shadowed bends. No one mentioned it. But each of them heard it. And none liked what it suggested.
"Damn you all..."
The laughter faded slowly, not because it had run its course, but because her body could no longer sustain it.
What remained was the echo—thin, ragged, clinging to the stone like damp. A ghost of sound that lingered in the corners, unwilling to fully die.
Then silence followed.
Heavy.
Close.
The kind of silence that did not soothe, only waited. It pressed against her ears, filled the spaces between her thoughts, made every small sound—the drip of water, the creak of chains, her own shallow breathing—feel enormous.
