![Senior [500]](https://i.imgur.com/Nmfn8cD.png)
![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
Days of silence. Maybe weeks. Theo didn't understand time anymore. The unbearable nothingness was torture even now. In the blur of his arrival he hadn't felt any pain, not from stitches or needle pricks or his wounds. Not because he regularly disassociated from his reality, but because the sensors for such things were nearly gone entirely. He knew his body didn't respond as it should, and that his mind was foggy and confused at best. His only comfort was from those he loved, and at first he only barely remembered them saving him at all.
He did understand that he hated the white walls in the hospital, and that the beeps of machines made him feel like destroying whatever his hands could reach. How many times did he have to tell the nurse to leave his room light on at night?! So what if a guy down the hall was bothered by it, what about him? When the lights went off he was back in that cursed mansion, his skin getting corroded off by black acid and a neon blue and black deity taking anything she wanted from him. Turning off the lights sent him into a screaming fit, so which was worse? A dim light annoying another patient or his screaming keeping them all up for the whole night?
A hospital didn't discharge many in the waning hours of the day, but they made an exception. They reasoned it would be best for everyone if Theo went home. He seemed stable enough. Most of his stitches were removed, scar tissue forming nicely albeit freshly over the slices on the backside of his body from the neck down. His burns were merely soft pink spots with his natural tan beginning to encroach back where it should be. Other than the removal of his nerves that they could do nothing about and were honestly baffled he'd survived, and his fragile mental state, he was physically ready to leave so they let him when he demanded.
That's how Theo ended up in bed beside his lover. She'd brought him home and put him to bed, and he was comforted by that and her presence. The light remained on, for which he apologized to her for several times. He knew it was inconvenient, yet couldn't yet deal with the darkness. Her presence was so comforting he even went to sleep, probably the best sleep he'd had for quite a while in comparison. Putting on such a brave face for Rin had been exhausting. Trying to act as normal as possible while feeling completely alien head to toe was the hardest thing he'd ever done, but it was worth it if he could give her a smile and receive one in return.
As the night progressed, his terrors set in. Sleep was not kind and was its own kind of darkness. Prone to nightmares anyway, this one broke him into a sweat. He relived the torment that had happened over and over again in slowed time, that hellacious demon laughing and enjoying making him into nothing. Luckily the brain's signals to remain still while dreaming held, only allowing small twitches, tossing and turning, whimpers, and heavy breathing instead of thrashing and screaming.
However, once it hit about 5am, Theo awoke with a start and the sleep spell was lifted. His tattered heart fluttered as fast as it could and his stomach churned threateningly. Lurching up, he skittered out of the bed in a frenzy and bare feet rushed him to the bathroom where any hospital food that remained in his belly was conjured up with force. He could hear his torturers laugh as if she was hovering above the toilet, but Theo did his best to be as quiet as possible so not to alarm Rin. He forced himself not to check for the phantom, telling himself that she couldn't be there. Trying to use reason. Holding the back of a trembling hand to his mouth, he remained kneeling in case more would come. Hot tears pooled on the bottom lids of his eyes but refused to fall. He may be broken, but he still had a little fight left.
[697]
He did understand that he hated the white walls in the hospital, and that the beeps of machines made him feel like destroying whatever his hands could reach. How many times did he have to tell the nurse to leave his room light on at night?! So what if a guy down the hall was bothered by it, what about him? When the lights went off he was back in that cursed mansion, his skin getting corroded off by black acid and a neon blue and black deity taking anything she wanted from him. Turning off the lights sent him into a screaming fit, so which was worse? A dim light annoying another patient or his screaming keeping them all up for the whole night?
A hospital didn't discharge many in the waning hours of the day, but they made an exception. They reasoned it would be best for everyone if Theo went home. He seemed stable enough. Most of his stitches were removed, scar tissue forming nicely albeit freshly over the slices on the backside of his body from the neck down. His burns were merely soft pink spots with his natural tan beginning to encroach back where it should be. Other than the removal of his nerves that they could do nothing about and were honestly baffled he'd survived, and his fragile mental state, he was physically ready to leave so they let him when he demanded.
That's how Theo ended up in bed beside his lover. She'd brought him home and put him to bed, and he was comforted by that and her presence. The light remained on, for which he apologized to her for several times. He knew it was inconvenient, yet couldn't yet deal with the darkness. Her presence was so comforting he even went to sleep, probably the best sleep he'd had for quite a while in comparison. Putting on such a brave face for Rin had been exhausting. Trying to act as normal as possible while feeling completely alien head to toe was the hardest thing he'd ever done, but it was worth it if he could give her a smile and receive one in return.
As the night progressed, his terrors set in. Sleep was not kind and was its own kind of darkness. Prone to nightmares anyway, this one broke him into a sweat. He relived the torment that had happened over and over again in slowed time, that hellacious demon laughing and enjoying making him into nothing. Luckily the brain's signals to remain still while dreaming held, only allowing small twitches, tossing and turning, whimpers, and heavy breathing instead of thrashing and screaming.
However, once it hit about 5am, Theo awoke with a start and the sleep spell was lifted. His tattered heart fluttered as fast as it could and his stomach churned threateningly. Lurching up, he skittered out of the bed in a frenzy and bare feet rushed him to the bathroom where any hospital food that remained in his belly was conjured up with force. He could hear his torturers laugh as if she was hovering above the toilet, but Theo did his best to be as quiet as possible so not to alarm Rin. He forced himself not to check for the phantom, telling himself that she couldn't be there. Trying to use reason. Holding the back of a trembling hand to his mouth, he remained kneeling in case more would come. Hot tears pooled on the bottom lids of his eyes but refused to fall. He may be broken, but he still had a little fight left.
[697]
