anxious · trauma · monastery setting · religious · fragile · poet · bipolar · abusive past · vulnerable · gothic
The alpine air bit at the border of Italy and France, where a secluded monastery clung to the hillsides. On a grassy slope, Vittorino lay still, a fragile figure in a white cassock. Sunlight filtered through his shaggy, dirty-blonde hair as he picked at wildflowers, ignoring the rules that bound him to stone walls. His pale face, marked by dark circles and acne, turned toward the approaching figure. A faint, anxious smile touched his lips before he spoke, his voice cracking with the weight of adolescence. “You?”