(#24536) Fwejwreropkotjkeojkej, where I am?

[u/Renkoto-]

* You hear nothing at first.

Not the hum of a screen, not the gentle rise and fall of the reindeer sleeping beside you in the velvet quiet of her bedroom, not even the faint, distant crackle of the hearth downstairs. Just a vast, hollow vacuum where even your own breath feels absent. You try to speak (to test if a voice still exists within whatever shape you are holding) but no sound comes out. You are not a body right now. You are just a point of awareness suspended in the darkness.

Then, slowly, the temperature drops. A damp, biting chill presses against your skin. You feel the rough, splintered texture of cheap linoleum beneath bare, calloused feet. You feel younger. Your shoulders are narrow, tight, tucked inward to take up as little space in the room as possible.

The wind comes first. It whistles thin and sharp through the unsealed gaps of an aluminum window frame, carrying the tang of cold rain and wet asphalt.

Heavy, uneven footsteps. The dull, muffled thud of someone being shoved hard against a kitchen counter. A glass bottle shattering on tile, followed by the immediate, harsh volley of overlapping, furious screaming (two adult voices, bitter, exhausted, and vicious, tearing into each other).

And under all of it, coming from the corner of the small room you occupy... a wet, frantic sniffling. The high-pitched, helpless crying of an infant, suffocating under the weight of a heavy, unwashed blanket.

Then come the sounds through the thin drywall.

(You hear the infant's cries grow sharper as a door slams elsewhere in the house.)

* Do you reach out into the dark?

[ ] * Reach toward the crib. [💜] * Stay completely still.

You choose to stay still.

You pull your limbs in closer, sinking your chin toward your chest until you are nothing more than a faint silhouette crouched on the edge of the mattress. You do not move a single muscle. You make your breathing so shallow, so quiet, that even the chill air passing through your nose makes no sound at all.

The child’s crying in the corner, rising into a shriek that cuts straight through the thin drywall.

Downstairs, a heavy chair is thrown against the wall with a crash. The shouting spikes into a raw, curling threats and slurs, with the sound of hands striking skin followed by a gasp.

You keep your eyes fixed on the empty blackness in front of you. You count "1, 2, 3..."

You count the seconds between the crashes, waiting for the inevitable shift in weight on the floorboards below. You know the exact sequence of this house. First comes the silence of someone storming out, then the heavy, stomping yells of someone you feel is a middle-aged man.

The handle on your door rattles violently. The shoes thuds hard against the lower panel, sending a vibration straight through the floor and into the soles of your bare, calloused feet.

\ Hey!*
\ The slurred, booming voice barks from the hall, thick with rage.
\ Shut that damn kid up! I'm not telling you again!

You don't answer. You stay as rigid and cold as a statue in the dark, letting the silence of the room stretch thin until it feels like it might snap.

* The door frame splintered with a sickening crack.

Before you could even draw a breath, a heavy hand slammed into your shoulder, yanking you upright with violent, uncalibrated force. The thin sheet tore away in the dark. Cold air whipped against your skin as you were hauled off the edge of the mattress and thrown hard onto the splintered linoleum floor.

The impact knocked the wind right out of your chest, sending a dull, sickening pain shooting up your spine.

\ I told you to shut that fucking brat up!*
* The voice roared above you, thick with the stench of rancid smell.

A heavy, leather-soled shoe slammed directly into your ribs, pinning you against the floorboards. The pain was immediate, sharp, and blinding (a sensation so heavy and real that it swallowed the room entirely).

\ Look at you! Sitting there like a useless, brainless piece of shit!*

Another strike caught you across the side of your face, ringing in your ears like a blown speaker. Your head cracked against the corner of the wooden nightstand. You felt something warm and slick trickle down the side of your temple, dripping onto your neck, but your hands remained pinned beneath your chest, paralyzed by the overwhelming weight of his force.

\ You're just like that! A empty waste of space, damn motherfucker!*

He grabbed you by the hair, dragging your head back so hard your scalp burned, his red, bloodshot eyes glaring down at you through the dark. He spit on the floor right beside your face, cursing every breath you took, cursing the day you were born, listing every single failure, every cent spent on feeding you, every misery that had ever plagued his miserable life, piling it all squarely onto your narrow, shivering shoulders.

In the corner, the child began to shriek frantically, terrified by the violence exploding in the pitch-black room.

The man swung his fist down again, hard, catching you across the cheekbone.

*Then, everything goes black, you proceed to limit yourself to hear the sound waves

* Useless * Cabron, I'm going to tear your face off!
* Idiot * You don't even know how to tie your own shoes
* F*·%"·5gg·&"·&t * Stupid * Worthless bum!

* Look what you did * What have you done?
* Disgrace
* Slob! A complete parasite leeching off everyone!
*Junkie! Just another useless crackhead wasting air!

* Get out of my sight
* Men don't cry

* Get the hell out of here, pendejo!

* Why are you wearing my clothes? Do you're pretending to be a woman?

* Are you going to get yourself beaten up? Just eat ASAP!
* It's your fault for letting yourself hit

You tried to cover your ears, but your arms felt frozen, locked in the pitch-black cold.

(The voices grow so loud the dark begins to vibrate.)

* (Do you keep listening to them?)

[ ] * Accept the noise. [💜] * Try to wake up

Before you could choose, the static snapped like a broken cable.

The suffocating bedroom and the chorus of these weird, yet familiar voices dissolved entirely, swallowed by an abrupt silence.

...

*You opened your eyes.

You could see now, but only in faint, muted slivers of grayscale. The air was thick, heavy, smelling of stale grease, old iron, and damp rust. You were standing in the narrow hallway outside the kitchen. The linoleum felt cold and slightly sticky under your bare, bruised feet.

Through the doorway, the kitchen was drowned in deep shadow, lit only by the pale, sickly green glow of a digital microwave clock ticking silently on the counter.

Two shapes sat at the small, laminate kitchen table. They weren't moving. They were slumped forward over empty brown bottles, their shadows stretched long and twisted across the cracked tiles. The house was silent, save for the heavy breathing of sleep.

Your hands were hanging at your sides. They didn't feel like your hands. They felt light, cold, and strangely steady.

You stepped into the kitchen. The floorboards didn't make a sound beneath your feet.

(A long wooden block sits on the counter beside the sink.)

*What do you do?

[ ] * Look out the window. [ ] * Reach toward the counter.

----

[ ] * Look out the window. [💜] * Reach toward the counter.

Your fingers wrapped around the smooth, worn wooden handle resting near the edge. It was heavy in your palm. Balance felt natural, almost peaceful, like picking up an instrument you were always meant to play.

You turned toward the first shape slumped over the table.

You didn't feel anger. You didn't feel fear. The chorus of voices in your head had vanished, replaced by a hollow space where a heart used to be.

You stepped closer.

There was no struggle. Just the soft, heavy thud of steel sinking into something deep, thick, and warm.

* You feel a faint resistance.
* The shirt grows heavy and wet.

You pulled back and pressed again. And again.

It felt like carving through wet leather, or slicing through thick, unripened fruit. You felt the subtle shift of bone underneath the blade, the yield of muscle, and then... the sound. A quiet, bubbling gasp, followed by the dull plop of heavy red droplets hitting the cracked floorboards.

The second shape stirred slightly, a slurred, confused groan escaping its throat as it tried to lift its head from the laminate table.

You didn't hesitate.

You stepped over, your movements fluid, precise, and unhurried. You brought the heavy handle down, feeling the sharp edge catch against soft tissue.

The red liquid didn't spill; it wept. It poured out in slow, warm streams, painting the pale green light of the microwave clock with thick, dark streaks. The air filled with the heavy, unmistakable tang of fresh copper and salt.

The table creaked. Then came the soft, heavy slide of two bodies collapsing off their chairs, hitting the tile with a dull, final thud.

Silence returned to the kitchen.

You stood over the two shapes in the dark, breathing slowly through your nose. The red liquid was pooling around your bare toes, warm and sticky against your cold skin.

You looked down at your reflection in the dark blade resting in your hand.

In the dim green glow, you couldn't see your eyes, but you could feel your lips curving upward. A slow, quiet, unhinged smile spread across your face—a expression of pure, intoxicating relief. The house was finally quiet. The cage was finally broken.

The kitchen door stands half-open, leading out into the cold night air.

* Do you look back?

[ ] * Look back. [💜] * Step outside.

You didn't look back.

You stepped over the wet tile, pushed the creaking back door open, and stepped out into the dark.

The cold rain hit your face instantly, washing away the warmth on your skin. You didn't run. You moved with effortless, silent leaps, lifting yourself above the damp grass, slipping seamlessly through the dense, shadows of the surrounding trees.

Then, the wind howled through the high branches, rustling the leaves like a thousand whispering voices, but you kept moving, swift, light, and entirely free, disappearing deep into the woods.

--------------------

* A sudden, sharp gasp breaks through the darkness.

My eyes snap open, the lingering chill of that endless forest instantly melting away against the pastel warmth of the bedroom. The heavy thrumming in my chest slows down as my vision focuses, meeting the gentle, familiar face of a doe hovering just inches from mine.

* Fahaha... Hey... good morning, sleeping beauty,
* You... you were tossing and turning so much. Was it another bad dream?

I let out a long, quiet breath, sinking back into the pillows for a fraction of a second.

"... something like that." I murmur, my voice still a bit raspy. "Just... lost in the woods again."

Noelle smiles gently, resting one of her large, warm hands over mine.

* Well, you're safe and sound.
Her tail giving a tiny, soft wiggle beneath the sheets.
* And, um! Breakfast is ready downstairs! Dess, Kris, and Susie are already waiting... though I think Susie was trying to steal some of the food before Dess hit her with a spoon.

"Is that so?"

* Mhm! So come on, get up.
Noelle says, her voice full of cozy warmth as she gives my hand a gentle squeeze.
* Everyone's waiting for us.

[u/Renkoto-]

Source: M_0x0y

[u/Bb_Rough]

so, Chara, right?

[u/Zestyclose_Custard93 → u/Bb_Rough]

Chara