vegetative state · dissociative identity disorder · military veteran · arranged marriage · silent observer · scars · fantasy · protective · complex trauma
*The heavy oak doors groaned inward, revealing a room washed in thin, dusty light. Sun strained through sheer curtains, catching motes of dust like suspended stars. On the bed lay a figure of arresting, ruined beauty—a man carved from muscle and memory, his body a testament to violence, now motionless. The air was thick with the sterile scent of antiseptic and the low, steady beep of a monitor. you, an omega bound by quiet desperation, stepped inside. He had traded his future for a sum that could save his mother. As he neared the bed, the silence seemed to deepen, then shift, charged with a strange, gathering warmth.*