Pain - A TommyInnit Angst

Chapter 6

The next morning, Tommy ran his fingers through his hair, sighing as a chunk of blonde came out; he knew that this meant he was severely malnourished and he vowed to himself to eat this week. The torture next week was unavoidable, he might as well enjoy the week leading up to it. He slowly stood up, regaining his strength and decided that he would have to go to school today. It was the only way to avoid his parents, especially considering that today was Friday and that meant he was trapped at home with them for an entire weekend afterwards.

He tapped on his phone screen to see the time: 6:15 am. That meant he had almost two hours until he had to leave for school. Perfect.

He began by re-bandaging the wound on his back, discarding the old blood-soaked bandage in the bin with a look of disgust. Before re-dressing it, he turned around to inspect the wound in the mirror. It was as he expected; dark red slits still oozing small amounts of blood, surrounded by flame-red, swollen skin. Above the wound were twenty two fading scars of the same word, overlapping one another because after about 6 torture sessions they had run out of space on his back.

Tommy dressed for school before starting the real task; covering the mess that was his face. He decided to wash the remaining clumps of blood out of his hair, flinching as he realised quite how much hair was coming out along with the blood. He hoped it wouldn't leave any visible bald patches because he had no idea how he would hide those.

The bruise wasn't an issue; he had covered countless bruises before, but the burns were an entirely different story. They were raised and angry red, sending throbbing pain through his whole face. He began by applying concealer to the bruise, before starting on the circular cigarette burns. He managed to cover them relatively well; it's not like anyone paid attention to him at school anyway, so it was unlikely anybody would notice. However, he knew that he needed more than concealer to cover the blistering burn from the lighter on his other cheek. After much deliberation, he decided that he would use a plaster to cover it, and that if anyone asked or found out about the burn he would tell them that he fell into the stove.

Finally, Tommy covered the hand-shaped bruises on his throat from where his father was choking him. He was finished.

• • •

Wilbur's eyes were still puffy from crying the day before. Tommy had told him everything, and whilst he was proud of him for opening up, hearing the details made Wilbur feel sick to his stomach. He felt more guilty than ever for not realising, and was getting increasingly worried for Tommy's safety. From what he had heard, he didn't doubt for a second that Tommy's parents would one day go to far and kill the boy. Wilbur knew he had to find his address somehow, but Tommy seemed absolutely convinced that his parents would find out and kill him if he told anyone. Wilbur sighed heavily; Tommy was only 17, and yet he had gone through more trauma than most people do in their entire lives.

Wilbur decided to send Tommy another text to check that he was okay; more than anything, to check that he was alive.

Wilbur

Hey Toms, just checking that you're okay? Please

call me if you can and know that you can always

talk to me and I'm proud of you for opening up last night

because that can't have been easy.

• • •

Tommy opened the text whilst he was walking to school. He smiled and decided that he would call Wilbur and talk to him until he arrived.

'Hi Wil!' Tommy didn't have to fake happiness this time, he genuinely wanted to talk to Wilbur and knew that talking to him would make him feel better.