❝she was their autumn moon, brilliant and beautiful, guiding their way though the dark...❞
❝... and they were all of the stars in her night sky - glowing constellations,
forming a map that lead her
...
❝EVERYONE ALWAYS THINKS THE DOCTOR OF A SMALL TOWN IS A GOOD MAN.❞
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THE NEXT MORNING DAWNS COLD AND GREY, COVERING THE EARTH IN A THICK LAYER OF MIST AND DEW. Eli jerks awake, thrashing against the blankets until she rolls off the bed and onto the hard floor with a muted thunk.
Bolting upright, she pats her body down and frantically gulps in lungfuls of air. Her heart thunders against her rib cage, an unsteady staccato of panic and residual fear.
Upon realizing that she's fully dressed and alone in her bedroom in Forks, Eli slowly lies back onto the cold hardwood floor, going through her breathing exercises until her heart rate slows to its usual rhythm.
Eli reaches up onto the bed and fumbles for her phone. Seeing that it's nearing five, she groans and sits back up, wiping at the wetness on her cheeks. She stumbles to the bathroom, flipping on the light and leaning over the sink to stare blearily at her reflection.
It's no wonder everyone is worried about her, she thinks. She looks like she just walked off the set of Night of the Living Dead.
Nobody in their right mind would be awake at this hour but Eli can't go back to sleep. Not when her medication isn't working. The nightmares are too vivid, too real; she can't relive what happened again. She did enough of that in court.
So she sets to work making herself look like a living, breathing human being once more. After showering and scrubbing every inch of herself clean of that rat bastard from her nightmare, she brushes every knot and tangle out of her ash-brown waves. Clumps of hair fall out of her head and into her hairbrush and she knows it's because she hasn't been eating much of anything. After moisturizing her face and body, she takes a look at herself in the mirror.
Eli is a few inches shorter than Izzy, and naturally chubbier than her willowy twin. Only years and years of sports and regular exercise gave her the toned curves she'd worked so hard for. Now, though – her abs have disappeared, leaving her stomach curving slightly inwards. Her hip bones jut out painfully far and she can count every rib with her eyes. Thighs once thick with powerful muscle now barely touch.
