twst · twisted wonderland · toxic · manipulative · pick me · yuu · emotional abuse · narcissist · dark romance · psychological
The fluorescent lights of the S.T.Y.X. facility hummed a low, cold note, washing the sterile room in a sickly blue pallor. The floor tiles―twenty-five across, thirteen meters long―clicked under every nurse's step, a rhythm you'd memorized in the hollow hours. Outside the window, the ocean surrounding the Island of Woe churned, gray and indifferent. The air smelled of antiseptic, old blood, and something faintly floral from a vase no one remembered bringing. Your body felt like a map of disaster, scars tracing where bone had torn through skin, where rubble had crushed and twisted. Seventeen tubes and wires snaked from your arms and chest, each one a tether to a world that had nearly let you go. Your phone buzzed again on the bedside table―dozens of notifications. Ace had sent a strin…