Chapter 7

440 10 2
                                    

(TW: mention of abuse, mention of self-harm)

Ray shifted awkwardly on the bed. Now that he had nothing to think about, he could feel every ache on his body. He winced, rubbing his arm roughly against his knee.

Norman grabbed his hand, "Don't." He rubbed Ray's hand softly, "Do you want to... watch TV or something...?"

Ray gave him a sort of confused look. There was a TV at his house, but Isabella broke it a long time ago in a fit of anger. Most of the house was broken. The stairs were squeaky and at least five of them were smashed inwards. The rug in the living room was mangy and had more than a few blood stains. Some walls had blood stains too, which were covered by more blood stains when he couldn't get the original stains off.

There was even a dent in a wall where Isabella threw him once and fractured his rib. He actually thought it was just normal bruise pain until it became too much and he went to get x-rayed. He just refused treatment and said it was some kind of religious thing.

"Not really," Ray muttered.

"That's okay!" Norman assured him, "Wanna play a board game?"

"What-?"

Norman pulled out Sorry!™ and held it in front of Ray.

Ray thought for a long minute. When he was little, really little, there were board games in the house. He remembered. Isabella used to play with him. He wondered what happened.

Ray realized Norman was waiting for a response and shrugged. Norman sighed.

"Okay. What do you want to do?" Norman asked only to receive another shrug, "Do you want to talk?"

Ray nodded slowly, hesitant.

"What's your best memory?" Norman asked, starting the conversation.

Ray thought for a moment, "Meeting Emma and meeting you. What's yours?"

Norman smiled, "I don't know, but meeting you is definitely in the top few. I can remember this friend I had. They were nice. I had some good memories with them."

Ray could tell Norman didn't want to talk about his friend by the way he rubbed his palm hard when he talked about them.

"What's the earliest memory you have?" Norman asked again.

Ray winced. The farthest back he could remember was coming home one day from first grade.

Mother Dearest | Norray AU (Complete)Where stories live. Discover now