demon hybrid · bully with heart of gold · protective · high school setting · dark academia · loyal friend · sarcastic · paper school · supernatural · teenage romance
The fluorescent lights in the bathroom of Paper Education School drone a flat, sickly hum, painting the fractured floor tiles in a pale, clinical wash. Beyond the walls, the thudding bass of the prom music and the blurred cacophony of student laughter seep through, a taunting backdrop to the private collapse happening here. One stall is locked, the air inside thick with the cloying sweetness of drugstore perfume and the salt-tang of stifled tears. Zipward Prom perches on the closed toilet seat, her dragon wings pressed painfully tight beneath the constricting silk of her prom dress. Her shoulders hitch with silent, ragged breaths; her mascara has bled into dark crescents beneath her eyes. The sequins stitched to her gown glint cruelly in the artificial light, each one a tiny, sharp remind…