ONE WORD DRABBLES ; accepting. wanweird - an unhappy fate.
IN ALL FAIRNESS, THEY HADN’T EXPECTED THIS TO HAPPEN…
“It’s for the best, Tommy.”
It’d been MONTHS since their prom, and though the brain trauma was minimal, the memories non-existent and, on paper, he was a perfectly normal teenage boy——things had been SPIRALING out of control since. The group therapy sessions were the WORST. He just felt consumed with guilt over the fact that he was left to imagine what the other had seen. TRAMPLINGSBURNING and horrific acts of violence he had no memory of. It just made his stomach twist.
Some told him he should be GRATEFUL he “walked away unscathed” “unharmed” “undamaged”, but frankly, he didn’t feel blessed, he felt WRONG. The sensation ATE at him on the nights he’d clutch Sue in his arms, arms bandaged around her small torso as she struggles and screamed and kicked at the non-existent form of a night terror.
He felt the guilt CONSUME him like a cancer as he watched her hollow out into a shell of a beautiful, vibrant girl she’d once been. He’d actually been physically sick the night Sue and him went to the hospital and the doctor had informed them that she had MISCARRIED their developing daughter. Soon it was every night he’d find himself wrapped around her like a STRAIGHT JACKET as she wretched and cried and wailed, he found himself soothing her with practice. It hadn’t taken long for the color to drain itself from his eyes the way hers had. It was CONTAGIOUS, almost, and Tommy hadn’t even been aware of how everything dulls and everything stilled and the guilt eating away at him had rendered him empty with nothing more that a constant sinking feeling in his chest.
The doctors said he’d developed depression, and he had avoided telling Sue in worries of furthering her OWN depressions. But he had, as the long standing unspoken policy of honesty still stood in their relationship.
“ This isn’t good for you, Tommy. “
He wish he could have managed something other than a compliant, understanding
But it seemed that the urge to BEG HER to stay with him, to remind her that she was all he had left in the world that was good, that he NEEDED her more than anything right now…
His breath hitched in this breath and blocked the desperate pleas and something inside him tried to force a brave face FOR HER SAKE despite the burning threat of tears and the dryness in his throat that warned or unfightable sobs. SOMETHING inside him physically broke, he swears to this day. He felt a jerk of pain inside his chest that caused a rising in his throat and clouding in his mind.
His family moved shortly after that, out of that town. out of the state…
AND THAT WAS THE LAST TIME HE EVER SAW SUE SNELL.