04-13-2026, 04:14 PM
YOU'RE WALKING IN THE SHADOWS OF YOUR FEAR AND YOU'RE HEADED
FOR THE GALLOWS, SIN AROUND YOUR THROAT AND NO ONE'S NEAR
FOR THE GALLOWS, SIN AROUND YOUR THROAT AND NO ONE'S NEAR
He listens, keeping his expression steady. He won’t let his own thoughts show, not when his son is already struggling to hold himself together. But the parallels to their stories are undeniable; the strange world, the hallucinations, the betrayal and violence from your own family. He thinks of dark labyrinths with undulating walls, he remembers his family’s haunting, distorted voices as they taunted him into insanity.
He remembers going in as a plain, unremarkable boy and emerging as he is now,with that insatiable gnawing already in his gut.
“I understand,” he says, voice quiet, heavy. “Perhaps more than you realize.” He has never told them the story of how he became to be; not in such detail. He is sure that when speaking of his own family he mentioned how out of place he felt, as being one of the only of Ether and Briseis’s children to not have been born with an affinity for shadows. He was sure that being changed into a bodach was a punishment for his longing, for not being content with what he had.
“Whatever happened in there, Harrowed, you must remember, that parts of it were not real. They knew your family was the way to tempt you. And even if now, you are irreversibly changed…” he trails off for a moment, jaw clenching, before offering his son a smile that is mostly hidden by his shadows. “You will overcome it.”
He remembers going in as a plain, unremarkable boy and emerging as he is now,with that insatiable gnawing already in his gut.
“I understand,” he says, voice quiet, heavy. “Perhaps more than you realize.” He has never told them the story of how he became to be; not in such detail. He is sure that when speaking of his own family he mentioned how out of place he felt, as being one of the only of Ether and Briseis’s children to not have been born with an affinity for shadows. He was sure that being changed into a bodach was a punishment for his longing, for not being content with what he had.
“Whatever happened in there, Harrowed, you must remember, that parts of it were not real. They knew your family was the way to tempt you. And even if now, you are irreversibly changed…” he trails off for a moment, jaw clenching, before offering his son a smile that is mostly hidden by his shadows. “You will overcome it.”
T O R R Y N
@Harrowed