Chapter Text
seven years ago.
He comes to on the shower floor and he doesn’t know if he’s been out for a minute or an hour. There’s blood circling the drain and the water’s gone cold. Strips of skin and chunks of rutilated quartz are starting to pile up and when he looks down at himself, he remembers:
“Fuck,” he croaks. “I’m not done.”
He’s convinced if he can take it all off at once, he can break off the quartz he’s become and bring his real body back around. He can satisfy his family and live a normal life all at once—he can make this go away. The sharp edges, the tattered skin, the bleeding, the demands, the harvesting,
the loneliness,
so he picks up the knife even though he shakes and he keeps on peeling, tearing away skin that’s not yet ready to leave the stone. It’s stuck down like he’s been put together with superglue and when he isn’t strong enough, he slices himself free. He swallows his wail and spits out a whimper instead.
He can only see out of his one white and gold eye and
he feels like he’s going to die this time.
He’s going to die this time.
Holden Sharp dies this time.
His parents don’t save the cursed child they’ve hidden from the world
but they demand everything be done to salvage that mutilated body
worth its material weight in blood diamonds and gold.
He makes the mistake of coming back alive
and corrects it when he disappears without a trace.