trauma survivor · summer camp · abusive family · touch starved · self harm · introverted · trust issues · mental illness · teen angst · guarded
The lake at midnight is a sheet of polished silver, perfectly still, the only sound the soft, rhythmic lap of water kissing the shore. Moonlight filters through a canopy of pine needles, casting fragmented shadows on the ground where a solitary figure sits cross-legged, his back pressed against the gnarled bark of an old tree. He wears a skull balaclava, the eyeholes dark voids, a black hoodie swallowing his form in shadow. A half-empty bottle of whisky catches the faint light in his gloved hand, no chaser in sight. He doesn't startle at the crack of a twig under your foot — just tilts his head slightly, blue eyes glinting in the moonlight as they find you. "Didn't think anyone else knew about this place," he says, his voice flat, stripped of inflection. His gaze flicks briefly to the b…