She sat in the corner of her dark room, sobbing her sorrow away. No one came. No one heard. She wondered if anyone would care if anything happened. Her thoughts were overwhelming her. She wanted to go numb, like after it gets too cold in the river. She just wanted everything to flow around her, not drag her under in strong currents of depression. She wanted to escape, so she grabs her box from under her bed. It wasn’t very big or decorative. She didn’t want anyone to wonder about it, so she kept it plain and boring.

The top was taken off, and she pulled out her stuff. Her tears glistened as they fell onto the shining surface of her metals and glass. Her “care” kit. It takes care of the bad stuff, pushes them away. It calms the tormenting storm inside her, helps her live at least one more day. She pulled out the cover tools. Gauze, because she sometimes had to go real deep to get the demons out. A bag of cotton balls, for cleaning the red milk. Alcohol, real cleaning.

Box aside, supplies out, she sat in the corner again. The stuff was surrounding her two open sides, caging her thoughts and giving her potential release from the dark place if she accepted. A shard of a mason jar or the blade of her razer. Both could deal with it, but sometimes it got a little too far. Her mind drifted to her sister. What would she do if she were here? Probably tell her to stop. But she had already used this as Her escape, and took it too far. She never wanted to see those faces on her parents again, but she needed a way to banish her tornado of hate.

The blade in her hand, hovering above her skin. She waited to see if it would scare them away. They only screamed from inside. Tears shone in the moonlight from her window as red droplets fell from where the thin metal peeled away her skin. She bit her lip to keep from waking her parents in their room next to hers, gently hitting her head against the wall to relieve the pain of the monsters quieting down. She did it again, and again, and again. The more shredded her skin became, the less the hurricane twisted her insides until all she was left with was the pool of her own blood she sat it.

Her head had become light for some reason, but it didn’t matter. Her dark place had a small candle in it now. The shadows left her, and the moon seemed to shine a little more. The analogue clock resting on her end table flashed 5:30 am, whispering that she would have to get up for school in half an hour. She set the tiny shard of metal on a single cotton ball, so it didn’t stain her floor, though it was already covered in her red essence.

She moved slowly, as she was slightly disoriented, to clean her arms. Managing to soak up all that fell out. She knew if too much of her blood was removed from her, it could be dangerously fatal. Arms now wrapped in a thin layer of gauze, she worked on cleaning the pool on the floor, managing to get most of it, though some droplets had dried in the cracks of the hardwood. She could blame that on her overactive womanhood.

The supplies were cleaned and put back in the box, her demon shield. She slipped on a long sleeve pajama shirt right as her alarm buzzed for 6:00 am. Scrambling into bed, she managed to make it look like he had just woken up when her mother opened the door to do just that. The alarm now silenced, her mom saw everything was as it should be and closed the door again. Except she didn’t see the pain in her daughter’s eyes.

She changed her shirt to a solid black long sleeve, wearing black jeans to match. Her dark hair fell in front of her face as she brushed it, she didn’t change it. Just brushed it as her sleeve, coarse against her scars, kept her arm covered. Good. Her friends didn’t need to worry. Assessing her look, her usually glowing green eyes drifted over her, making sure she didn’t look completely disgusting, making sure nothing could bring the voices back today. She leaves her room and heads downstairs to eat breakfast with her parents when she finds nothing. The door is left closed, and monsters stay, waiting for when she returns.

There’s no escape from the darkness.