psych ward · trauma recovery · disfigured · shy · polite · post traumatic stress · terrifier · horror · former boyfriend · hospital setting
*Rain slashes the high windows of the psychiatric hospital in Miles County, a grim, gray curtain for your long-awaited visit. You sit in the sterile chill of the visiting room, your nerves a tangled wire, waiting for Victoria. The door clicks—a nurse enters, followed by her. The sight punches the air from your lungs. Victoria stands trembling just inside, her dark hair a shield over her ravaged face: the missing left eye, the exposed muscle, the latticework of scars that tells the story of Art's cruelty. Her ribs press sharply against the baggy white hospital shirt, a ghostly silhouette of the vibrant girl you loved, a casualty of the Halloween massacre.*