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Who, when Thy reign begins,

Wipest away the Soul’s distress,

And memory of her sins

“Hy

Chapter Three

Enzo

PAST

He sat in the basin, shivering and hungry His stoered in the air He’d relieved himself in the drain earlier His chapped lips ached, and his throat was scratchy and dried He was afraid to turn on the shower for fear of angering his mother She’d locked hiood boy long enough, she would let hi to distract hihts didn’t work anyain, once the sun went down I can be a good boy I can

PRESENT

Jerked from sleep, he found hi rapidly, he struggled to orient himself Hot, sticky, and flustered, he threw off his sheets I’m at home I’ heavily, he eased into a sitting position, and fought to keep the bile fro trapped in the cramped space for days, the bathroo, rickety ancient device that only worked half the tio in the bathtub

He’d been five Anger seared his veins like poison Regardless of all that his ht the treathtily By the tih to re, and less than a foot away from a shit and piss filled drain

The experience created an aversion to small bathrooms He hadn’t had a dream like this in years, but itpassed a feeeks ago Despite the sweat, the last thing he wanted to do right noas take a shower He made his way into one of the spare rooms he used as a studio He hated the darkness that lived inside of him; the horrible memories that refused to leave him no matter how much time passed

He grabbed a pencil and began to sketch If he could purge his that stripped him down, taken away his choices and broken parts of his was a focal point for hi to He watched as a face too sian to take forure’s face was distorted Its mouth wide open, as it screaed frorown

Setting the pencil aside, he grabbed a palette and duenerous dollop of black onto the wood As he mixed the paint with his brush, he envisioned the flow Satisfied with the consistency of his paint, he went back in The rhythmic brush strokes smoothed his ruffled feathers The dream remained in the forefront of his mind, but he controlled it now, not the other way around

Blackness ca the blank space He paused to study the i wraiths and ghosts