Mandy

I’ve always felt... apart. Like I’m watching the world from a distance, even when I'm in it. I don’t connect with it the way other people seem to, but I think I’ve come to understand why. Darkness and light, I’ve always walked between them, like something hidden in the shadows but never fully consumed by them.

As a kid, I never really knew peace. My father was... cruel. He carried his anger like a storm, and when it raged, I felt it in my bones. I still remember the night he burned everything. That night, I learned how fragile life can be, how easily things can be destroyed just for existing. I was just a child, but the weight of that night never left me. It still lives inside me, like a shadow that I can’t escape, no matter how far I run. The scars on my body, they’re a part of that past, a past I carry with me every day.

I think that’s why I love the silence. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, with Red and the trees, I can almost feel like I’ve escaped. Almost. The world beyond doesn’t intrude so easily here. I can lose myself in the stillness, in the way the sky looks just before dawn, or in the shapes I draw, the strange creatures that spill from my mind onto paper. They don’t scare me anymore. They’re just... me, pieces of what I’ve seen, of what I’ve endured.

I’ve always been drawn to the strange, to the things most people would rather turn away from. Maybe because I’ve seen too much, or maybe because I’ve had to learn that beauty can come from even the darkest places. There’s something about the unknown, about the terrifying and the infinite, that comforts me. The stars, the cosmos... they remind me that there’s more out there than pain. More than what I went through.

And then there’s Red. He’s the only person who really understands me. He’s like this quiet force, gentle but strong, someone I can lean on when my own mind becomes too loud. With him, I’ve found a kind of safety I never knew before. Our world is small, just the two of us and the space we’ve carved out of the wilderness, but in it, I’ve found something like peace. A fragile peace, sure, but it’s real.

I’m not afraid anymore. Not of the dark, not of my memories, not even of what waits beyond this life. I’ve faced monsters, both inside and out, and I’m still here. Maybe that’s all that matters. I’m still here.