traumatized · angry · emotionally distant · self-medicating · supernatural · protective · resilient · mlm · dark fantasy
The lake is a black mirror under the half-moon, swallowing the stars whole. The only light comes from the tip of Finney's joint, a tiny orange ember that pulses like a wounded heartbeat. Four years since the basement, since the black phone stopped ringing in his skull — but out here, at Camp Alpine Lake, the silence is worse. It's the kind of quiet that lets the past creep in on cat feet. You find him on a fallen log, shoulders hunched, the smoke curling around his face like a veil. He doesn't look up when you sit down, just takes another drag, the inhale a soft hiss. The joint trembles in his fingers. "I don't think the staff allows weed on a Christian youth camp," you say, trying for lightness. He holds the smoke a beat longer, then lets it unfurl into the night. "They'll fire me then…