I'll stick around like the scars on our arms

Chapter 7 ~ ❝ Confrontations and Coping Mechanisms ❞

TWs FOR ABUSE AND SELF-HARM

Natsuki stared wide-eyed at her father in her doorway. How didn't she hear him enter the house? How didn't she hear him walking up the stairs? What would he do to her? All these questions clouded Natsuki's mind as she just tried to think of something to say to her dad.

"Dad, I-" Natsuki started, but she was cut off with a backhand to her cheek. Sher eyes started to gloss over as she looked at her dad with pure fear in her eyes. Yuri would've stepped in, but she didn't know where she fit in the puzzle. Instead, she took a couple of steps back, her eyes also glazed in the clear film of fear.

Natsuki was picked up by the forearm by her dad and he tossed her uncaringly into a wall. Natsuki landed against the wall and then the floor with a thud, her body falling ragdoll as it was splayed out on the floor. Her head bounced a little bit, but not for long, as it was yanked up by the pink hair that now looked like a birds nest on it.

Her eyes were screwed shut tight, her brain focusing on only one thing. 'Don't cry. Don't cry.' She braced for anything and everything as she felt her head being yanked to the floor, her neck being pressed down on slightly. She knew something big was coming, just from her dad's patterns alone. And boy was she right.

Her dad had grabbed the full body mirror she had in her room, and had batted it into her head repeatedly like she was an object. It hurt so much, and a couple of tears escaped her eyes. She continually braced for more and more pain until...

It stopped.

She felt notjing on her neck and nothing hitting her. So she opened her eyes. She was not expecting to see that Yuri had pulled her dad off of her and that she was now glaring daggers at him.

Yuri moved next to Natsuki's dad, standing right up beside him and grabbing the mirror he was holding. She glared down at him, smacking him upside with the mirror. She threw a kick directly into his nose, knocking him out for a little while. She turned her attention to Natsuki, who had been watching the scene unfold in front of her. Natsuki's eyes were glazed and unfocused as she watched Yuri. As she watched Yuri's movements. Her every move.

She couldn't tell if she was terrified, amazed, or thankful that Yuri had stepped in. Frankly, every bone in her body told her to run.

So she grabbed her school blazer and ran. She ran and ran and didn't look back. She ran to the nearest forest. She ran until her knees gave out beneath her. She stayed on her knees for a while, her hand in her pocket and fiddling with the sharpener blade she hadn't yet thrown away.

Her mind started to spiral again, her thoughts all jumbled, yet all negative. There wasn't a single positive thought that ran through Natsuki's mind at that moment. Every fibre of her being was shaking, fearful, and ached to feel that dull sting of the blade against her skin.

And that's what she did.

Natsuki pulled the blade out of her blazer pocket, and began savagely slicing her thighs with no regard for how she would clean up the blood if she ever left the woods and went home. She wasn't planning to ever go home. As she sliced, her sobs escaped her lips. Her sobs echoed throughout the barren woods, clawing and ripping at her throat, desperate to be let out.

A few minutes pass, and her slicing slows down to a stop as her blood pools and drips down her legs. She couldn't tell what was skin and what was blood from the amount of loose flesh there was on her thighs. However, she didn't have time to think as the shock from the pain came through and her vision went spotty from blood loss. She looked around, praying for a saviour to come and sweep her away and take all her pain with them.

Her eyes darted around as her ears zeroed in on the sound of leaves being crunched. As she focused all her energy on seeing through the spots, a blur of peachy-beige, blue, and purple flooded her sight, filling her with slight hope of the person who would be her saviour.

The person was saying something, but Natsuki was too exhausted to hear properly. The only words she could make out were 'safe', 'hospital', and a word which she assumed was French for something. Natsuki used up the remaining part of her energy calling out her saviour's name. "Yuri.."

Then, her vision faded to black completely...