His thumb brushed gently over her scar. "You had a lot of pain."
"Yes." She kept watching the butterflies, the cheerful, colorful mobile. "A lot of pain."
"You mentioned phantom pain."
"I feel it sometimes, during a nightmare or just after one. During a panic attack. I know it's not real."
"But it feels real."
"Very real."
Angels Fall
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By The original uploader was Tirin at English Wikipedia. [GFDL
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
Beautiful photo series documents people’s scars and the stories behind them
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“You can take a nap in my bed if you want,” she invited, then pressed a curious
finger on the edge of the scar she saw beneath his hitched-up T-shirt. “You have a
hurt on your back.”
“Uh-huh.”
Alex was already scrambling to look. “Can I see?”
Holt tensed automatically, then forced himself to relax. “Sure.”
As Alex pushed up the shirt, both children's eyes widened. It wasn't like the neat
little scar they had both admired on his leg. This was long and jagged and mean,
slashing from the waist so high up on his back they couldn't push the shirt up
enough to see the end of it.
“Gee,” was all Alex could think to say. He swallowed, then gamely touched a finger
to the scar. “Did you get in a big fight?”
“Not exactly.” He remembered the pain, the incredible flash of white heat. “One of
the bad guys got me,” he said, and hoped it would satisfy. When he felt Jenny's little
mouth lower to his back, he went very still.
“Does it feel better now?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He had to let out a long breath to steady his voice. “Thanks.”
Suzanna's Surrender