To the Gods, Bear Witness

Foggy Skies, Foggy Minds

The sky was dark, fog rolling through the streets, the scent of petrichor drifting in through the open window, a small cookie sitting on an oversized plate on the windowsill. It was a perfect scene, except for the young girl crying silently all alone in the corner of her bedroom, a binder cut into pieces surrounding her. She moves gracefully around them, leaving them untouched, as if they were little shards of glass scattered around the ground.

After a minute of carefully moving around the pieces slowly, she settles down on her bed, looking outside through the window. The foggy sky clears the fog from her mind slowly as the tears dry on her cheeks.

She always enjoyed the moments after the rain, the few moments of tranquility after the storm. The only moment she could be at peace, no dysphoria, no scars, no bruises, no anything...

Aeon slowly grabbed the cookie off the plate, staring it down. Just the sight of it made her stomach turn, her breath hitched in her throat, bile threatening to come up. It was a small chocolate chip cookie, from a generic brand. Simply the feel of it, the feeling of sand, was enough to make her legs shake. Was it the buried hunger, was it immense disgust, or was it the fact she hadn't eaten or slept in days? She couldn't place her finger on what the cause was.

She didn't even give it much thought, simply pushing it back to her mind along with her other troubles, to fight another day, after her tranquility. Before the storm arises once more.

Without hesitation she shoves the cookie into her mouth, holding her nose as she forces it down her throat, slowly moving down. As it slowly passed, she could feel herself gag, physically repulsed by the taste of food, eventually causing it to come back up in a paste of water and chunks.

Almost instantly her hands darted to her mouth, trying to keep it inside, the bile threatening to spill. Aeon pushed herself against the wall, her legs giving out, causing her to come clashing against the floor, the sound blaring through her room and the house.

Not too soon after this moment did footsteps begin to echo, the sound coming closer. She looked over at her door, a chair pushed in front of it, as it began to rattle. The more the door rattled the more tears slowly welted in her eyes, her hands pushing against her mouth faster, her breathing quickening, her eyes darting around the room before landing on her bed.

She laid there for a moment, as a tear rolled down her cheek before letting her hands go, causing the evidence of her sins as a human to come pouring onto the floor. Even despite this she still forced her arms, feeling like noodles, to push herself under her bed, to hide the curse of flesh she bears from human eyes.

For each push she made, digging her nails into the cold hardwood floors, splinters and vomit chunks coming under her fingernails each time as she pushed herself forwards, water still streaming down her chest, her face frozen in fear.

Even the strong smell of decay and vomit had no effect on her, the only thought on Aeon's mind being hiding from him, to hide from the one cause of problems in her life, to hide from her storm, the bane of her existence. Each push just brings her further to salvation, to safety, to under her bed.

Not too soon after she managed to get fully under the bed, to her salvation, did the storm manage to force itself into the room, instantly taking a step back at the smell of vomit that was circumventing its way around the room.

"Gah- you little..." The man managed to choke out, falling against the wall as he examined his surroundings closely, Aeon holding her mouth shut, the salty tears getting forced against her lips as it mixed with the remains of mucus.

The man walked over to the windowsill slowly, a slight limp in his step from where she slashed him with her nails earlier. He stopped at the windowsill before grabbing the plate and smashing it against the ground, glass shards taking off across the room like birds from a tree.

"I know you're in here..." He announced, looking around the room at the glass shards settling on the ground, moving as they did. The man's face was cold, his eyebrows furrowed as he stomped down on a shard, it instantly breaking apart on the bottom of his foot. "You like cutting yourself with glass like this... don't you...? You emo bitch..." He started coldly as he bent over, looking down under the bed as he picked up a glass shard.

His eyes widened as he saw Aeon, laying under the bed, her hands over her mouth, her eyes dilated, her body laid there frozen in fear. The man smiled at this before reaching out under the bed, grabbing her by the hair and pulling her out against the floor, the shards digging into her body as she laid there limply in defeat.

"Found you..." The man yanked her hair again, forcing her up before throwing her against the bed. "You know... you always look prettiest when you're scared..." He looked her up and down, keeping his right hand in her hair as he observed the shards in her skin, jutting out at strange angles.

Eventually he moved his left hand to yank a shard out of her flesh, causing blood to begin to flow from the cut, a large hole in her skin missing. Even while this happened, she simply flinched a little, looking off into the distance absentmindedly, trying to disassociate from what was occurring.

"Hey. Look at me." He demanded, using his left to drag the glass shard against her chin, leaving a small red line as he moved her chin upwards. The man then kissed her gently before releasing his grip on her and walking over to the door, dragging his feet against the ground, kicking the shards around the ground.

Silently, he looked back at her, her body quivering as she sat still on the bed, staring at a small puddle of her blood on her bedsheets, as it slowly dripped from her chin and rolled down her arm. The man examined her before leaving the room, slamming the door behind him causing Aeon to jump once again.