bruises are pretty imo

Day 29: Paralyzed

Maelynn was awake, and that was the worst part. She thought whatever the man had given her would knock her out, but that proved to be untrue. This was definitely worse, lying on the floor under a single too-bright light bulb but unable to move out of the view of the camera trained on her. 

“Absolutely gorgeous.” Maelynn couldn’t do anything as the man appeared in front of the camera. The shutter clicked, and Maelynn would have flinched if she could fucking move a muscle. She tracked the man with her gaze as he inches closer to her, picking up her wrist with one hand and moving it to the other side of her body. “This pose seems better. More weak. Like I could crush you and you wouldn’t protest. Don’t worry, I won’t. You’re too beautiful for that.” Maelynn glared at him, but she was unable to do anything else. 

The shutter clicked again, and she blinked, tears filling her eyes. She tried to squeeze them shut, but the man was right. She was too weak. Her only hope was that the man didn’t notice. “Oh? What’s this?” Shit. Of course he had noticed. A single gasp escaped out of Maelynn’s throat, and the camera beeped. “This is too good not to record,” he said from behind it. 

Day 28: Self Harm

probably self explanatory, but cw: explicit self harm

Taking a breath, Maelynn picked up the blade. It probably wasn’t that sharp, just a half of a pair of scissors that she had taken apart. Pushing up her beanie with a hand, Maelynn directed her gaze to her forehead, reflecting back at her in the mirror. The brand that the man had given her had not faded one bit, the circle of dark skin still just as prominent. Parting her bangs, she swallowed a wave of nausea. It was disgusting. 

But she could finally do something about it. She got out of that place. So why was she hesitating? Just get it over with. You’ll feel better afterwards. Sure, it wasn’t exactly the best way to deal with things, but it couldn’t be that bad. Her brother passed the bathroom she had locked herself in, and she froze. Shame washed over her as his footsteps faded, but she shoved it down. He wouldn’t care. Elijah had quite literally forgotten about her when she was kidnapped, so why would he even notice that she had the scar in the first place, let alone that there was a fresh cut on it?

She was taking too long. Maelynn grabbed the blade again, the handle digging into her palm. She lifted it to her forehead. It was just barely shaking. Gritting her teeth, Maelynn glared at herself in the mirror and dug the point of the blade into the edge of the scar, dragging it across in one quick motion. She sucked in a breath. It stung. Of course it did, why would she expect otherwise? But it was done. Blood beaded up in the cut, and Maelynn watched the little drops fuse together until the biggest made its way down her forehead. Maelynn stepped to the side and wadded up some toilet paper and held it to her face. It was probably not the best, but it would do. She’d had deeper cuts before. She would live. And she was right. She did feel a little better. Sure, the scar was still there, but it was hers now.

Day 19: Heat Stroke

It was supposed to be fun. Just a hike, as if that was supposed to help Avery get over her brother’s death. Of course, no one had accounted for the mind games that the forest was playing on them. Avery should have known. She was the ghost hunter, after all. She shouldn’t have let Elijah and Maelynn drag her into going someplace she hadn’t thoroughly researched beforehand. 

Well, that didn’t matter now. Avery wasn’t even thinking about all the things she should have done, because she was too busy trying to keep her mind blank. An empty head made her feel on the verge of blacking out, but any thoughts in this state always ended up with her brother, and thinking about him made her pounding headache worse. 

“It’s a forest, how is it this hot?” Elijah stared up at the sky, where the sun beat down on them. 

“Tropics are a thing, you know,” Maelynn muttered, not fully paying attention to him. She was more concerned about Avery, who had tripped over her feet three times in the past five minutes. “You doing okay, Avery?” 

Somewhere in the fuzziness and the ringing in her head, Avery heard her name being called. “Wh- oh yeah, ‘m fine, I’m fi-“ She stubbed her toe on a pebble and pitched forward, a wordless gasp leaving her mouth as the ground rushed up to meet her. 

“Woah, okay, sit down.” Maelynn caught her right before she smacked her head on a rather large rock, maneuvering her to sit on it instead. 

“Black probably wasn’t the best color to wear, huh?” Elijah reached forward and passed her a bottle of water, but she never took it. Avery slumped forward, falling unconscious. 

Day 18: Dressed by Whumper

“Let’s see.” Maelynn gritted her teeth as her captor held up a pink dress next to her. “This one, or…” He took the dress away and held up another one wit his other hand. “This one? Which one’s better?” He held up the first one again, musing to himself. “Well, actually…” He left the garage, taking the dresses with him, and reemerged a moment later holding a red one. “I like this one. Red hides the bloodstains.” He chuckled. “Yes, I think you’ll look beautiful. Put it on, will you? I’ll come back in five.” Maelynn instinctively flinched as he threw the dress at her. 

Exactly five minutes later, the door clicked open. Maelynn was standing, leaning against the wall, wearing the dress, her tattered and bloody clothes thrown to one side. “There we go. You’re beautiful.”

Day 15: Branded

“Hmmm, let’s see. You’re missing something.” The man entered the dusty garage where Maelynn sat in a corner, blinking awake. 

“Do tell.” She would have said something more snarky, but she was too tired. Maelynn wasn’t sure what time it was, but she definitely hadn’t gotten enough sleep. As she shifted around, she felt the new welts and bruises from the day before and suppressed a wince, instead choosing to stare the man in the face.

“Very funny.” Neither of them were even smiling. As she watched, he brought out a iron rod and a blowtorch. Any remnants of sleep were completely whisked away as Maelynn realized what he was going to do. And she was completely helpless to stop him.

The rod hit her forehead and she screamed, banging her the back of her head against the wall. The man didn’t let up, only pressing the brand in further. Tears of pain squeezed out of the corners of Maelynn’s eyes, but she was in too much pain to be embarrassed.

Day 9: Car Wreck

Half-asleep as he was, Elijah didn’t see the other car coming. Maelynn, sitting in the passenger seat, shut her eyes as the headlights blinded her, and a moment later, the other car careened into her door. She could only let out a yelp of terror before everything turned black. 

There was smoke. That was the first thing she smelled, even before she opened her eyes. Trying and failing to take in a full breath, she blinked, trying to make sense of the blurriness around her. The frame of the car was smashed, and a cloud of grey smog was rising in front of her. That definitely wasn’t good. “Mae?” A hoarse voice cut through her disorientation and she moved her head to the left, where her brother looked just as dizzy. “You okay?”

“Uh, I’m not dead,” came her reply after a few moments. She tried to climb out of her smashed side of the car, but when she twitched her leg, needles of pain shot up it. Maelynn choked out a groan. “My leg isn’t.”

Day 2: Broken Bone

As he looked down at his leg, Elijah remembered something that he had read. “The ABC’s of First Aid: A Bone Coming out through the skin is not good.” Well, his bone certainly wasn’t poking through the skin, but it was definitely not where it was supposed to be. Huh, he thought as he lay next to a dumpster, it hurts less than I thought it would. Well, maybe that was because he was slowly falling unconscious. Either way, Elijah didn’t care. He tipped his head back, blond curls getting dirtier by the second, and tried not to move. Someone would probably find him later. He closed his eyes… and opened them again when a violent jolt of pain washed over him. Someone’s arm was on him, pulling him to the side, moving his legs. A cry of pain escaping him, he looked over to see who it was.

“What the- Oh, Maelynn. Guess I won’t die then. Huh,” He mumbled, still not fully conscious. 

“What the fuck happened? Can you walk?” His sister’s concerned face loomed over him, her urgent tone waking him up more than anything else. 

“No, don’t think so.” He tried to keep his tone light, as if he wasn’t actually severely injured, but it was hard thanks to the waves of fire that spread from the break. 

“Oh, ok. I’ll help you then.” Maelynn wrapped an arm around his shoulders and without warning, lifted him off of the ground. As Elijah’s legs instinctively moved under him, the pain in the break racketed up to an unbearable level, and he blacked out once again.

“You could be beautiful, you know?” Maelynn suppressed a gag as the man that had kept her in his garage for the past three days traced a finger down her jawline. “You could be art. If only you would cooperate.” 

“Never,” Maelynn muttered quietly, but the man heard her anyway. 

“You know I don’t like hurting you. The marks they leave would have to be covered up before anyone saw. But you’re making it very difficult,” the man said, his voice deceptively smooth. Maelynn’s gaze skittered around, looking for any possible escape route. Where she assumed the garage door had been was covered up was a freshly painted wall. She wasn’t getting out that way, then. Distracted, she didn’t notice the punch that the man threw at her until it was too late. 

Her head snapped back, knocking against the back of the chair, and she brought up a hand to press against the red patch on her jaw that would probably bruise. Blinking off the dizziness, she fixed her gaze on the man. “Fuck you.” 

“That was your fault, you know. You shouldn’t blame me.” The anger that only lasted for a moment faded away, and the man composed himself again. 

“Are you gonna continue with your stupid villain monologue or are you gonna tell me what you really want?” Maelynn stared up defiantly at the man, a frown on her face. 

“Haven’t you been paying any attention? Oh well, I guess if you’re this beautiful, you won’t need any brains.”

Maelynn gritted her teeth, trying not to shiver in the uninsulated room. “Don’t call me that.”

“Beautiful? What’s wrong, you don’t believe it? Don’t worry, you will soon enough. Once I get to work on you, that is.” 

Only half-paying attention to the man, Maelynn scanned the room again. Most of the conventional garage things had been removed, leaving only a rusty metal desk with rows of drawers underneath. Some spots on the walls were brighter than others, like someone had hastily painted over them. And then there was the door that the man had dragged her through three days earlier.

It looked like something out of a stereotypical mental asylum, matching the aesthetic of the rest of the transformed garage. Two padlocks were firmly closed around it. Alright then, she would have to convince the man to let her out. Which was quite unfortunate, as he was not one for bargaining, Maelynn was quickly learning. 

Turning her attention back to him, Maelynn interrupted his rambling. “What do you wa-“ Her words were harshly cut off with a slap to the face, somehow striking the same spot he had before. Yep, that would definitely bruise. 

“Now now now, we can’t be having that! When I’m talking, no interruptions. You must understand.” He moved behind her, roughly yanking her wrists back. “As for your question, haven’t you been paying attention? I don’t want to ask again. I’ve already told you. Twice now. And just for that,” he paused, leaving a tense silence. Then all at once, Maelynn felt an agonizing pain in her shoulder. She yelped and twisted around, but the man’s grip was too strong. “Fucking stop!” she hissed. The man did not let up. It seemed like he didn’t even hear her.