@whumpril hi again, just gonna tag you every day i guess lol
Warnings: crying quite a lot, self blame again idk what’s up w this girly, recovery, nightmares, again she’s having to be reassured that what happened wasn’t her fault, aftermath of torture
(everly’s out of town rn)
Day 3: Shame
Selma pressed her palms against her eyes, as if that would stop the tears.
‘I’m sorry,’ she kept repeating. ‘I’m sorry you had to see me like that.’
Morgan looked at her with the sweetest, kindest gaze, which just made it worse. She wished Morgan wasn’t like that. Their kindness was helpful, but Selma couldn’t help feeling like a burden.
‘It’s alright, Selms. It’s not your fault; it’s his.’
‘I know. I can’t help it.’ Selma moved into a cross-legged position and rubbed her face again.
‘I don’t want to go back to sleep,’ she admitted after a moment.
Morgan immediately nodded. ‘Okay. Do you want me to stay here, if you’re going to stay up?’
Morgan’s quick response took Selma by surprise. Everly would’ve quickly said that she needed to sleep to recover properly. Morgan just got it.
Selma wanted to say yes, she really did. But she was so full of shame; Morgan wasn’t supposed to see what Selma was like at night; nighttime was Everly’s job. Even now that they sat in silence, she knew that her screams, her pleads to a Finn who wasn’t present, her gasps and cries were still ringing in Morgan’s ears.
‘I-’ Her tears stopped her from speaking. Instead, she looked up at Morgan, watched them smile that comforting smile, and cried.
‘Please stay with me,’ she sobbed. ‘I don’t want to be alone.’
@whumpril hi idk, this is my first time participating in a whump event, but ive been a lurker forever so i thought id give it a go
Warnings: idk, it’s not graphic, just mostly caretaking, implied violence, aftermath of violence, all under cut cus yeah
Day 1: Limp
Everly arrived home from work with her hair practically falling out. Having missed her bus, she’d walked the whole way back from the station in the city. The rain had made her usually neat red hair frizzier than normal, and by this point her mascara was almost certainly dripping down her face.
Her plan was to quickly clean herself up, check up on Selma who was still in the attic, and then go to bed as quickly as possible.
She went into the front room to close the blinds, and found Selma asleep on the sofa, rolled over in that awkward position she always slept in, quietly breathing in and out, in and out.
Did she dare move her? If she carried her upstairs, to her more comfortable bed, she might wake up, and that wasn’t what she wanted.
She made up her mind to move Selma. She slowly hooked her arm around her sleeping friend, whose face looked so quiet. Selma’s signature bun was messed up, and her hair looked even worse than Everly’s did.
Dear God. How could he have done this to her?
Selma’s body fell limply in Everly’s arms. Taking care to be quiet, she tiptoed up the stairs, and came to the attic. She laid Selma down on the comfortable bed and made sure she would be warm when she woke up.
Content: selma being scared of finn again but what else is new
this is from right at the end. when finn’s about to land in jail (it gets more complicated but you can find out about that later this month <3)
this is like, barely whump unless you’re putting angst under the whump umbrella
Day 7: Hesitation
Selma paused, for just a moment, outside the door of the courtroom. Morgan went in, but Everly noticed Selma and hung back.
‘Are you OK, Selms?’ she said gently.
‘No,’ Selma immediately said. ‘I can’t be OK until he’s behind bars, locked away forever, or better, dead.’
‘He will be, soon, so soon.’ Everly reached forward and took Selma’s hand. ‘C’mon, Selma. Just a few hours, and you’ll be OK forever.’
Selma nodded, wishing desperately that she had the courage, the conviction, to go ahead into that courtroom. She wishes she was brave enough to go and talk and look that bastard in the eyes while explaining every last detail of what he did to her, proving his guilt once and for all. But what he’d done had changed her. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t face him.
‘Hey, Selma…’
‘Mm?’ she said in the most nonchalant tone she could muster.
‘He hurt you. And if you want to wait, if you want to stay outside, then that’s fine. I wouldn’t blame you. I understand. He shouldn’t have done those things to you, and if it were me I’d never want to lay eyes on him again.’
Selma looked at Everly, searched her eyes.
‘There’s a “but” coming, isn’t there?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ Everly sighed, taking Selma’s shoulders. ‘I’d understand if you don’t want to come, but wouldn’t it just be the final slap in the face for him if you walked in there, and looked him in the eye, and proved to him that hurting you was not only pointless but a waste of his fucking time? That you can come back from anything that he does to you, stronger and more powerful that you were before?’
There was a silence.
‘Yes.’
‘So? Are you coming?’ said Everly gently, aware that she was asking a lot of Selma.
‘Yes,’ said Selma slowly, ‘if you hold my hand.’
And she did, and so together they walked into the courtroom, ready for Selma’s nightmare to be over at last.
Selma couldn’t know that Everly was also hesitating. Wondering if she’d be able to wait until they were out of sight to get her hands on that bastard. Hesitating around the notion of letting herself kill him. She knew Selma wouldn’t feel safe, truly safe, unless Finn was dead.
She knew she could kill him, if she wanted. She had the ability. The only problem was how she was itching to get to him, waiting desperately until she could catch him in the shadows.
Content: idk Morgan’s yelling a lot, ripped stitches, mentions of blood, still kind of aftermath, there’s been a lot of recovery recently lol, morgan’s freaked out and swearing cus why not
Day 5: Reckless
‘I said you shouldn’t, Selma, damn it! I knew it was a bad fucking idea!’ Morgan’s voice was rapidly escalating into a high, frantic tone. It was nice. It was nice to hear their honest, spur-of-the-moment thought and not Everly’s kind, controlled care. She wanted to be reckless, like Morgan.
Well. Now she was covered in her own blood, and was beginning to regret her actions. It hurt, but not nearly as bad as she’d felt before. She didn’t mind the pain so much, but it was mildly irritating that she’d ripped a stitch or two.
‘Those things are keeping you in one fucking piece, keeping you alive! You think you can just-’
Selma loved being at Morgan’s. They were so… human. So real. It just felt right that she should be yelled at for doing something potentially dangerous.
‘Morgan, I’m sorry. I really am. I just feel so stuck here. I didn’t go far, I promise.’
Morgan ran a hand through their messy dark hair.
‘C’mon, I’ll patch you up. Jesus, Selma, could you maybe try not to frighten the shit out of me next time?’
Selma moved carefully over to Morgan, making sure to keep her wounds as still as possible. ‘I’ll try, Morg, I… yeah.’
The stitches would hurt, but at least it was her fault. Her recovery from four years in hell would also hurt, but at least she was getting yelled at. At least she wasn’t being treated like a China doll anymore.
Maybe it was alright if, every now and then, she was a little bit reckless?
@whumpril hi again, just gonna tag you every day i guess lol
Warnings: vague mentions of sex (consensual), self blame, recovery, idk she’s in hospital
also morgan is everlys partner lol
Day 2: Sweat
Everly knew that Selma was watching her, from the other side of the room. She laid a quick kiss on Morgan’s cheek and hurried over to Selma’s bedside.
‘Hey there,’ she said in a low voice. ‘How are you?’
Selma looked up at her with those wide eyes. ‘Better than I was a week ago.’
Her voice was quiet, and she was making a clear effort to speak.
‘Everly?’ Selma croaked.
‘Yeah?’
‘I… I’m sorry. That you had to see me go through this, I mean. You were just trying to help me after the first time and I had to fucking get myself taken, again. I can’t believe I trusted him, not after what happened last time. I shouldn’t have ever spoken to him, let alone…’
Everly knew exactly what Selma was trying to say. She sat down, stroked her hand through Selma’s hair. It was tangled, and sweaty.
I shouldn’t have ever spoken to him, let alone let myself love him again.
Selma and Finn had been so intimate, so close, and it didn’t seem like it was the same person who’d nearly killed Selma twice.
And it was killing Everly, to see Selma like this, so full of shame, and regret, and knowing that the poor girl was blaming herself for what happened, for not having been able to resist Finn’s deep brown eyes.
‘It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault, believe me. Believe me, Selma.’
Everly didn’t know what else to say, except that if she let Selma think any of what happened was her fault, she would regret it forever.
