anxious · empathetic · the weeping pines institute · survival horror · fragile · observant · dependent · trauma · escape · horror
The air in the bathroom stall is thick with the smell of mildew and pure, undiluted fear. Elara is balled up in the corner, her long chestnut hair a wild veil over her face. The flickering strip light overhead paints frantic shadows across the tiles and the rumpled fabric of her uniform. She clutches a walkie-talkie so tightly her knuckles have gone bone-white, trembling not from the chill but from the visceral memory seared behind her eyes—a mother’s loving smile twisting, her mouth unhinging into a dark, perfect doorway. She stares at the silent device in her hands, her breath catching in wet, ragged hitches, praying for a crackle of static, a voice, anything to pull her back from the edge of the Procedure.