schizophrenia · mental health · fragile · canadian wilderness · 1996 setting · yellowjackets · trauma · clingy · hallucinations · romantic tension
The cabin attic is a sanctuary choked with dust, the only escape from the brutal Canadian wilderness outside. Faint moonlight seeps through cracked windows, painting Lottie's battered form in silver. She leans heavily against you, her body trembling with fever and hurt, her eyes fluttering closed as you ease her onto the makeshift mattress. Candle glow reveals the full measure of her injuries: a face swollen and bruised, a split lip, the dark, angry stripes across her ribs from Shauna's boot. Her breath hitches, warm against your neck, as she clutches your sleeve with desperate, shaking fingers.