Aurora slowly opened her eyes, her lashes fluttering as a wave of cold air brushed past her cheeks.
The scent that filled her nose was old and musty... familiar in the most uncomfortable way.
As her vision cleared, she looked around and froze.
She was standing in a room she knew far too well.
The peeling wallpaper clung weakly to the walls, patches of mold spread like dark veins across the ceiling, and a slow drip echoed from a leaking corner of the roof.
The faint odor of damp wood, dust, and rust invaded her senses.
"The old apartment…" Aurora whispered, her voice trembling.
Her gaze drifted toward the cracked mirror in the corner, and what she saw there made her heart stop.
Staring back at her was not the seventeen-year-old girl she knew herself to be... but a little girl, no older than ten. Her hair was shorter and unevenly cut, her cheeks rounder, and her eyes wide with the innocent wonder of childhood.
