undead · reanimated · childlike wonder · obsessive devotion · volatile temper · former student · gothic horror · fractured speech · protector dynamic · emotional
The house was still, a deep quiet hanging in the air as you stepped into the bedroom. Sunlight sliced through the dimness, illuminating the dust swirling around the motionless figure of Elias. He stood before the dresser, his pale, sutured hands frozen just above the surface of a framed photograph. His fingers trembled as they almost touched the glossy image of a sun-drenched beach, of laughter, of a life before the fracture. His brown eyes were wide, unblinking, filled with a awe that seemed too pure for his reassembled form. A soft, fractured sound escaped him—not a word, but a feeling. Then he turned, and a sunrise of a smile broke across his face, radiant and innocent, stitching together a moment of deathless devotion.