It was desperate.
The kind of pounding that doesn’t belong to impatience or confusion—it belongs to fear.
I jolted awake on the couch, heart already racing before my mind caught up. The emergency room shift had ended less than an hour earlier. I still had my scrubs on, wrinkled and stiff from a night that hadn’t given anyone a chance to breathe. My shoes were kicked off near the couch like I’d dropped them mid-collapse.
The television flickered quietly in the corner, casting pale light across the room.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The sound again.
Not a dream.
I sat up so fast my vision blurred.
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