𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐎𝐎𝐑 | ❝ We can't always wait for our heroes to save the day, Flash, that's how I got here before you. Now move aside. ❞
Sebastián Belmonte, new CCPD detective fresh from his Greenville transfer, has a tough time adjusting to life...
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"In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics." —Earl Warren
: A MESMER'S TOUCH
Holden stared in the bathroom mirror. His reflection looked back at him with pity, taking in his disheveled appearance and mocking him. This is how you present yourself, it asked him, as weak and pathetic? You deserved everything that happened in Greenville. You deserved it.
Frail, too skinny. Weak.
Holden's green eyes found the clear presence of his ribs poking against the skin covering his body. He'd lost lots of weight since meeting David, and it was beginning to show not just in his torso but even Holden's hands and feet were becoming spindly and pathetically scrawny. Sebastián hadn't yet taken notice of this and Holden hoped to God that his father never did. He hoped his dad stayed busy enough and tired enough that he wouldn't have to see this latest nuisance concerning his son.
His brown hair was darker than normal, still damp from the shower. Even his eyes, which used to be filled with light and happiness, reflected the sorrow inside of him. Every moment he stared at himself in the bathroom mirror brought another painful memory of that night rushing back to him.
It was exhausting. He couldn't even look at himself anymore.
Holden turned his back to the mirror, stomach churning and bile rising in his throat at the thought of staring at his body. The memory of the marks David had put on his skin — red and raw, blue and purple — ambushed him as he pulled up his jeans over his bony knees. He had to stop and close his eyes, wish himself to a different thought, before he could finish getting dressed.
Every morning seemed to be as painful as the last. Why should he have to rise and face another day when all that met him was anguish and the cruelty of humanity? Why should he continue receiving pain when he didn't have to?
Dad, Holden told himself as he struggled to pull the sweatshirt over his head. Dad's why. He wouldn't know what to do without me... but I just cause him trouble. I don't even know what to say to him anymore.
He left the bathroom, head ducked low as he darted about his room trying to find everything he'd need for the first day at Central City High. Once again, Sebastián had reminded him last night that Cecile Meyers would be showing him around the school until he got his bearings. The idea of a student council member helping him of all people was laughable, so laughable that he only found disappointment settling in his heart.
"Dad! We should get going." Holden called out as he left his room and began to head downstairs. He stopped on the landing when there was no immediate answer. He glanced over his shoulder, looking up at the door to Sebastián's room. There was no light under the door to indicate anyone was awake inside the room so Holden jogged back up the stairs and knocked on the door a few times.
