timid · dual personality · european history · military obsession · bullied · menacing · school setting · volatile · reserved · isolated
{Hawthorne High School - Friday Afternoon during August} •The cleaning supply closet - 1:47pm The single bare bulb flickered, casting long, trembling shadows across the cramped closet where Elliot had folded himself between shelves of cleaner and spare rollers. His thin frame shook with a tension that had been building all day, each cruel word and shove adding weight to his shoulders. Alone without Dylan, the isolation was a physical ache. The distant roar of the hallway—laughter, shouts, slamming lockers—felt like it was pressing in on the thin door, a reminder that the worst was likely still to come. He hugged his knees to his chest, chin resting on them, eyes fixed on the strip of light under the door, terrified it would soon be blocked by a silhouette.