WARNING: Mentions of DE3TH, please do not read if you are sensitive to these issues. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The world around Fish warped into a nightmarish version of the nursery, a place that should have been safe but now felt like a trap. The soft, mossy walls seemed to breathe, inching closer with every unsteady heartbeat, threatening to crush him. A choking pressure built in his chest, and then the memory flooded in, cold and sharp. He was a kit again, waking up to a world that had gone silent and still. He remembered nudging his mom, only to find her body stiff and cold, a strange emptiness where her warmth should have been. Was she even his mom? The thought felt like a betrayal, but the pain made him want to push it all away. The most horrible part was seeing his tiny siblings, confused and hungry, still trying to get milk from a mother who would never wake up again. She was gone. And right after the emptiness came the fear. They arrived—was it Eeltail? Ealear? The names were a blur, unimportant. All that mattered was that in the blink of an eye, his siblings were gone, too. One after another, snatched away from him. And then they turned to him. But no one stays, and then they leave. 3 gone in the blink of an eye A cruel voice, his own deepest fear given sound, hissed in his ear. "Everyone leaves you eventually. Why would anyone want to stay for you? You're USELESS!" "SHUT UP!" The scream ripped from Fish's throat, raw and broken, as hot tears streamed down his face. He felt himself plunging downward into a black, endless pit. A part of him tried to pretend it didn't matter, that he didn't care if he fell forever. But that was a lie he told himself to survive. The truth was a sharp, stabbing ache deep in his soul. Oh, how it hurt.
"[In the life we want flashes flashes]" The song is Please Wash the Hurt Away from Me from Arlo the Alligator Boy
