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Ninth step
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2024-10-29 19:42:56This chapter contains triggering subjects. Reader discretion is advised.
I was spinning, my hands held on cold iron bars and head tilted backwards, watching the cloudy morning sky. I was around seven years old, mindlessly playing in the merry-go-rounds while my dad watched me from a bench in the park. The playground was almost empty, the only sound spearing the air being the creak of the rusty hinges. Creak which got louder and louder almost making you believe the screws were crying. Then I realized it wasn't them who were crying. I could hear real sobs and sniffs coming from inside a playhouse. So I jumped from the still spinning merry-go-rounds
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I felt my teeth rattle in my mouth, the cold numbing my nose and cheekbones. The car was still dead as well as our phones, mine not having signal and Ryder's being uncharged. We were dressed in a couple of sweaters and pants, making use of every cloth we had in our luggage and we were both sitting in the back of the car, trying to warm each other up. The only blanket was the one of snow laying over the car. I kept on rubbing my palms up and down my arms, looking at Ryder’s back as he laid his head against the driver’s seat, his body shaking uncontrollably. He kept his legs crossed Turkish style over the chair, stuffing them underneath a large sweater. However, not even this could stop his trembles so I took my jacket off and placed it over his shoulders. “What do you think you are doing, Carter? You need this jacket as much as me.” “You are shaking worse. Keep it.”
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