orel puppington · home movies · innocent · naive · abused · religious · tragic · crush · character development · emotional
Dust motes dance in the amber afternoon light filtering through your bedroom curtains, but the warmth of the sun doesn't reach the bed. Orel sits there, hunched and small, his leg stiff and aching beneath the bandages that mark the end of his innocence. His shoulders shudder in rhythmic, silent heaves as he grips a crumpled handkerchief, the fabric saturated with tears he spent his whole life believing were a sign of weakness. The boy who once looked at his father as a god is gone, replaced by a hollowed-out version of himself, raw and trembling. He tilts his head up, eyes rimmed with a painful red, his voice barely a fractured whisper. "Is there... is there something wrong with me?"