Duskwood: At first time

-4- September (16+)

Some details in the story related to untranslated long story with the same characters. I'll use this font for these parts.

Tw: the story has mention about really dark mental state, results of mental trauma. Please read with caution and stay safe.
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The sky was darkening, covered with thick, heavy clouds, and Anna felt more gloomy every moment. The first walk in three months turned into an alarming nightmare, with nasty goosebumps along the spine and cold drops on the temples.

Poor Hannah was saved. The remnants of a dangerous cult have been destroyed. They even dealt with the fake witness! And then the vacation ended, and Duskwood ended with it. Lilly and Jessy texted to her sometimes, but that was it.

And Jake was gone. He left a pathetic, unexplained note about the possible danger and stayed in July. And Anna - in September. Alone. Again. Some people probably have a special seal on them, a sorcery that made others leave them over and over again.

Anna was left to exist in her small town, locked in a narrow house. Even the work was transferred online since after a week of observing her nervousness, the boss got sympathy and signed the order, muttering a good-natured: "Gosh, girl, you can work with plans like this, everything has been scanned for a long time."

It probably should have been better at home. But for some reason it didn't. In a tightly closed room, with Shad staring accusingly from the windowsill, she was slowly going crazy. The shadows in the corners came to life, moved, grinned with black teeth, thickened and fell on the pale skin with oil drops. Her hands, streaked with white scars, were reddening, spreading out in red stripes... And under loud irritated meowing, Anna came to her senses - with new crimson lines on her hands. She looked at the result of the madness and laughed loudly, hysterically. Of course! As she thought! If anyone in this poisoned world was worried about her, it was fluffy cat Shadow. And bitter laughter turned into salty tears.

Month after month, and finally she found the will, the strength to leave the room, as the doctor advised.

And there are people around, people... The park is full, it seemed like the whole town was in it, there is not a corner to hide from prying eyes. That's the way it should be, Anna told herself. "Otherwise, loneliness will destroy me." She got dressed and sat down on the crimson-yellow foliage.

Noisily. Human laughter cut into the blood of sensitive ears as well as blades. Anna tried not to hear. Imagine that there is a wall around, concentrate. It was as if people were far away - and this boy hadn't stared at her for what seemed like forever -and her twisted world had gathered and limited itself to a sketchbook and the rhythmic rustle of a pencil. A long line, a short stroke, and then, again, a long one... And here is a face on paper. barely familiar, but bright and so alive, Jake looked from the sheet with strange, warm and cold eyes. He's beautiful. And gentle. And Jake.

Anna hasn't painted people for many years, not since Jennifer's case. And now Jake appeared, captured all her thoughts and broke the foundations, appearing again and again in shadows and nightmares.

And outside, cold September ruffled the trees by their curls and drove migratory flocks into invisible distances.

Anna closed her eyes. The solitude was not good, but she did not want to see her friends either. Just her, the wind and the drawings surrounded by yellow leaves. People are out there, far away, beyond the boundaries of her twisted world.

And cold September filled her with dreary loneliness, like muddy water - a cracked vessel.

Summer is far away. Bright, green, cheerful and terrible summer is also beyond the edge, behind dirty glass covered with a web of wavy cracks. There, through the looking glass of memories, there was Duskwood and adventures growing up from childhood with Hannah, a girl with a similar name, and a bunch of noisy people. And Jake. He stayed there too, disappearing into the misty distance one night. He had disappeared, but Anna still remembered the warmth of his hand and the not at all romantic meeting in a dark alley, taking care of the wound and a chance meeting in a hospital room, a quarrel at the police station... Now the world around her is a hot and humid September.