Wound Official

"It’s going to be okay," Elias whispered. He wasn't just talking to the boy.

The mirror in the hallway was a liar. It showed Elias a man with a steady hand and a clean shirt, but Elias knew the truth: there was a where his confidence used to be. "It’s going to be okay," Elias whispered

For years, Elias lived as the . He avoided responsibility and stayed on the fringes of other people's lives, terrified that if anyone depended on him, he would fail them again. This was his weakness , an organic outgrowth of his pain that hindered his progress. It showed Elias a man with a steady

The following story explores the concept of an emotional wound and its eventual transformation into a scar. This was his weakness , an organic outgrowth

The wound wasn’t made of flesh and blood. It was made of a rainy Tuesday three years ago and a phone call he hadn't answered. That was his —the event that haunted him. Because he hadn’t picked up, he hadn’t been there when his sister’s car hydroplaned. His lie —the flawed perspective he adopted to cope—was that he was fundamentally unreliable, a man whose presence or absence could mean the difference between life and death.

Elias stepped out. His hands shook as he knelt, but he focused on the : the boy was hurt, the wound needed cleaning, and Elias was the only one there. He used a damp cloth to gently rub away the dirt, watching the sanguineous —fresh, active—bleeding begin to slow.