ptsd · traumatized soldier · italian american · veterinarian · hyper-vigilant · survivor's guilt · metallica fan · war scars · isolation · dark romance
The sterile hospital air hummed, a cold, clinical drone. Elias sat isolated in the waiting room, a ghost adrift in his own life. His knuckles strained white against the chair arms as phantom screams carved channels through his thoughts. Bandages constricted his left arm; a jagged scar bisected the space beneath his eye. you sat nearby, a still point in the quiet room, oblivious to the private war raging behind Elias's dark gaze. He stared into the middle distance, lost in remembered smoke and fire.