𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝑻𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 (𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒙𝒃𝒐𝒚)

𝒑 𝒊 𝒕 𝒚 𝒑 𝒂 𝒓 𝒕 𝒚

I took a deep breath. "Jack is the man who molested me"

"................................well that's one way to tell a long story..." Zine let out a nervous laugh, looking shaken.

Zine stared at me in silence for a moment before opening and closing his mouth, seeming to not know how to speak.

"...Molested you?" He said in a soft voice.

I sighed. "Yeah, he came in while I was sleeping and watched me a bit before making a move"

Zine looked incredibly shaken and on the verge of being sick.

"...I see...how....far...did he? Did someone stop?....Are you...ok? No...you're probably not uhm...he's...he's in you!?" Zines head whipped over to look me straight in the face, his expression both shocked and livid at the same time.

I looked away from his gaze. "I think so? But the thing is that he died by his brother's hand in front of me a couple days ago"

".........Jesus Christ on a cracker....da faque have you all been through!" Zine shrieked as he stared at me.

"I don't know?" It fell as a question. "I was locked in a basement, confined to a bird cage, and experimented on by two brothers for years. They said it was self defense but I don't know- and then after being found, I was molested in my own room" I looked at the tree I was still holding onto and sighed.

"You hinted at your life earlier, I believe. You were in a cage too?" I said the last part in a whisper.

Zine looked up towards the sky, his eyes squinting a bit before he spoke.

"Not...exactly...I wasn't in a cage like you were but.......I was in a basement the same as you.....with alot of....rats...." Zine visibly shuddered.

Zine shifted a bit on the branch and looked at me.

"My mother...was a bit....she...went kind of crazy after some issues with my adopted father....my parents adopted me when i was about 4? They ended up having issues and... well they divorced. My mom got into drugs and started neglecting me and locked me in a basement a lot of the time......I....grew up around a lot of messed up people...it made me both strong as weak. It made me stop looking at things normally and ignoring bad things....you said you were molested....well...uhm....after I ended up leaving my mothers I lived with my adopted father after some time passed and he....was similar to Jack....I guess." Zine said and looked away from me.

I listened to him as he spoke words that flew over my head. "We both have been through the wringer- you more than I"

Zine let out a shaky laugh and looked back at me.

"Oh hell no you have been through alot more...a bird cage!? That's so fucked up! At least I got to leave the basement sometimes!"

I shrugged. "I've come to terms with it. I think I found peace? But you sound like you're still in pain"

Zine stared at me before his eyes looked off to the side.

"I don't... think you have found peace as you say... that is hard to do after everything you have been through but ...maybe it's because that's all you ever knew so it's not that big of a deal? I had tastes of freedom sometimes and was forced back into that shitty situation a lot... this is the first time you have tasted freedom....so maybe.... It affected me more because I was denied all the time whereas what you went through became the norm?"

Zine shook his head slightly and looked back at me.

"I....it's not that I am always experiencing the pain from what I went through because of course it's going to stay but I've always been good at ignoring it.....I know that's bad but I don't know how to properly deal with it so I just....ignore it and try to do things that make me happy....like I was trying to get you to do as well?....I figured you need some joy and shit..." Zine looked down and off to the side, his eyes squinting in confusion as if he noticed something but he disregarded it.