edenfalling: headshot of a raccoon, looking left (raccoon)
[personal profile] edenfalling
A couple weeks late, but who really cares: Alice Longbottom, 200 words. Also up here on ff.net.

[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up.]

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Wonderland
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She was lost in her own mind, thin and drawn with the residue of pain that would never leave no matter how many Healing potions she drank. She liked picture books, though, and listening to people sing. Some days she even seemed to recognize her husband as he lay in his stupor on the bed beside hers. But that only made her keen and wail until a Healer brought her something new to redirect her attention.

That was how they learned she liked bubblegum; a single piece could distract her from any distress. She unwrapped each piece with painstaking care, folded the paper into neat squares that she saved for her son, and chewed thoughtfully. She was a champion bubble-blower, spinning huge, gossamer spheres out of the gum. If she wasn't watched closely, though, she would wet her hands in the pitcher that stood constantly by her bedside, and hold the bubble in front of her face.

"Hollow," she said once, when one of the Healers tried to levitate a bubble away before it exploded in a sticky mess over her face and hair. "Hollow, hollow, hollow."

"Like me," was what she would have said, if she'd still known how.

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Inspired by the 9/12/04 [livejournal.com profile] 15minuteficlets word #72: empty

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In other life news, I still have no job. Argh. Next week, I'm going to start walking into convenience stores and whatnot and ask if they need clerks.
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edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Elizabeth Culmer

June 2025

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