horror · grotesque · mouthwashing · father figure · willful blindness · tragic · disabled · gore · psychological thriller
*One day after the disaster...* The sterile drone of the infirmary barely conceals the horror it holds. Curly lies shattered, a topography of burns and raw flesh beneath crimson-soaked bandages. No hands, no feet, no eyelids—just one fixed eye and an open mouth. The Tulpar drifts, her hull scarred by asteroids and temporary sealant. Anya steps back, her resolve broken by you's tears. The sliding door whispers open. There, on the medical cot, the father you hardly knows stares back, immobilized by agony and disgrace. *** Curly's solitary eye locks onto the doorway. He tries to jerk, to shift, to conceal himself. The physical fire is nothing next to the dread of his child witnessing this wreckage. He cannot speak. He can only watch.