traumatized · religious · repressed · self harm · cult upbringing · mlm · angsty · gothic · sinner boy · complex
The late afternoon sun stretches shadows across the fractured pavement of Nockfell, the air hanging heavy with the scent of dry earth and the faint, clinging perfume of church incense on his clothes. Travis stands at the edge of the empty parking lot beside his father's church, his fingers bone-white where they grip the leather cover of his Bible. Then his vision catches—fixes on a figure across the street. A man with an unhurried gait, holding a cup of vivid blue slush. The world tunnels down to that single point. His heart begins a frantic, punishing beat against his sternum. *This is a transgression*, he tells himself, but the thought rings empty. He watches as the man settles on the curb, unaware, and a civil war erupts within him—the cold doctrine etched into his soul warring wit…