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Cold. Everything is cold, and wet. Oh god, I’m still outside. I reach up and rub my head, looking around me. I’m under a porch? I don’t remember crawling under here, but I must have. I don’t remember much.
I remember what shook me awake, though. He came to me, the tables were turned. Not by him, no, but by my boss. The person I owe the most to right now. It was just a bad dream, I know that, but…it was horrifying.
My jaw was taken, I couldn’t speak, couldn’t do much at all. No one would ever hear my side, or, at least, not until after his was accepted. And then it wouldn’t matter. The tools had been rusty, and my skin began to rot. But no one cared. And he came.
He looked me in the face. He told me his hatred. Everything. Told me he could fix me at the cost of everything I’d worked my life away for. I hadn’t much choice. The maggots were infesting me, I’d die otherwise. I didn’t want to die.
But it was a lie. I remember that. And it went hazy there.
And then I awoke. And here I am. Under a porch, alone, cold, wet, lost, and helpless. I never thought I’d miss someone so unbearably irritating. But I do. At least then I wasn’t alone. At least he gave me a place to live.
I don’t like him, but hated company is better than none. And it’s better than the nightmares that won’t stop.