Chapter Text
“ EVERYBODY DESERVES
A SECOND CHANCE ,
EVEN IF YOU BELIEVE YOU’RE UNWORTHY . ”
hunger .
<3
Food: enjoyable, delicious, fulfilling, needed, etc..
Gradually Henry had stopped eating. At first, it was just skipping either Breakfast or lunch, not thinking much of it. But soon, he craved the feeling of hunger, how when he doesn’t eat, pain fluctuates all throughout his stomach and head. In the beginning it was one of the most excruciating pains he's ever felt, though after a bit he started to want it. The boy felt alone when the pain wasn’t with him, awaiting its arrival each and every day. Quickly the pain left. His body was accustomed to it, there was no reason for it to arrive.
He was terrified of food; even just the mere thought of it can cause him to spiral. Nobody knew of this addiction the boy had developed. It was a secret, only for him and nobody else. Not once ever imagining that there is a possibility that someone may find out one day, if they did they would try to get him to stop, he knew that.
He knew what he was doing was bad. It's like any other addiction, it seems impossible to ever stop. But he just couldn’t.
People would tell him that it was unhealthy, he was already skinny, he was slowly killing himself. But he didn’t believe the things they said. All they were saying in his mind was gibberish, none of it was important towards him, maybe to others the words were important.
Nobody else deserved what he was going through, he was the only one who should suffer like this. Everybody else should love themself and be confident, besides worthless him. Such as - Charlotte, they have talked about how they compare themselves to people with flat chests, saying that they are pathetic because they were born in the wrong body.
Henry does so himself, comparing his body to flat chested individuals. But that's what he deserves. He should find himself pathetic, hate his body, not Charlotte, not anyone else.
It's what he deserves.
It is exactly 6:00 pm. Time for dinner. Soon enough Kris Hart will call him down to eat, it has turned into a daily routine. Sometimes just hearing her footsteps walking towards the stairs alerts him what time it is, having learned each of his family members' footsteps by heart, having many benefits attached to doing so.
The boy wondered what they would be having for dinner this evening; though he never eats whatever it is, none of them questioned the behavior, not like it mattered to them. Nothing that Henry did was important to his parents, besides if it's related to school.
He could be found barely breathing, almost dead, and his parents would only care about if he’d be able to go to school. Example being: the bathroom incident, neither of them cared that their teenagers teacher said that he ran out of the room crying, just that he skipped classes. People didn’t know anything that happened behind closed doors, only what Kris and Jake Hart find suitable for others to know. The idea of anyone finding out how they all actually act terrified the Hart parents.
“Penelope! Dinner!”
Kris called out. She was three minutes late. Her and her husband are extremely strict with being late, Piper isn’t included in the rule, she could make us late for an important event and they wouldn’t bat an eye. She was their “angel”, “an example of what he should've been.” but they don’t blame how they raised Henry to be the reason why he’s the way he is. It’s because of the ‘gays’ that he’s friends with.
He walked downstairs, noticing the huge grins on his family's faces. It is quite a rare sight to see any of them smiling at home. Kris and Jake argue all the time and Piper is always yelling at her phone, probably trying to drown out her parents.
Sitting down in his usual spot on the table, all of them turned to face the boy, still having their eerie grins attached to their pale faces.
Each of their eyes seemed as if they were bulging out from their respective sockets; smiles growing more uncanny each time he even dared to look at them for a split second. It looked as if skin was laid on top of them, like it didn’t fit any of their bodies right. The longer Henry sat there, the more he increasingly got more uncomfortable.
Piper stood up from her chair and walked into the kitchen.
But she didn’t stop staring.
She could somehow contort her body making it possible for her head to not move an inch away from Henry’s eyes. Looking directly into him. The young girl grabbed a carton of milk and poured it into her bright pink cup that she brought along with her, mysteriously not spilling any of the liquid. Neither Kris or Jake seemingly noticed the movement of their daughter, only paying attention to their son. This was the most attention they have ever given him.
But being the one receiving all the attention didn’t feel good. He had always imagined that you would feel like you're above everybody else, that you’re better, but he felt uncomfortable and undeserving. Maybe it was because they just wouldn’t stop staring, or their unnerving smiles growing with each passing second.
Piper walked back to her seat, drink in hand, and sat back to where she originally was before going to the kitchen. Nothing about her stare changed though, piercing through her brother's brown eyes. She as well ignored the existence of the others and paid all her attention upon who she normally hates.
Henry was dreaming. He was sure of it. His family typically acted as if he never existed, like he was a fly disturbing them with his existence. Not the fact that each of his family members' faces were distorted beyond recognition as to why he felt so uncomfortable, it was because they actually acknowledged his existence.
Silently standing up from his chair, not daring to move his eyes away from them . It terrified him to wonder what would happen if he looked away. What they would do. This wasn’t the first time the boy had felt uncomfortable or alarmed around his family, but it has never been this extreme before. The eerie feeling that something terrible is going to happen, dread consuming everything else inside his brain, the once anticipation of what dinner will be, turned into fear of what will happen at dinner?
Walking backwards towards the living room, attempting to get out of there as soon as humanly possible. But his family also stood up from their chairs; anger now evident on their faces, instead of the grins they originally had. Henry isn’t allowed to leave.
“Where are you going, Penelope?”
Piper's voice sent chills down her brother's spine. She sounded as if she was in an empty room, her voice echoing all around, the girl's voice would stick with him for a while, possibly forever. It almost sounded fake, like she was using a voice changer. Nobody would ever believe the teenager if he ever tried to tell someone about this experience, even if it's a dream.
His overwhelming fear is going to make it impossible for him to ever remember any of this.
“I r-remembered that I forgot s-something at work-”
The boy was frozen in place, terror had taken over his frail body. Every part of him becoming vulnerable to hungry stares. The trio swarmed around Henry, looking him up and down like he was a delicious meal waiting to be devoured. They all looked at him like he was going to be their last meal. Almost as if they were about to be executed.
Snap
Henry’s head rolled around the floor. Mocking the way toy balls moved when rolled on the ground, blood spitting out from his neck, staining the carpet with a light red, none of it having bled through the carpet deep enough yet.
Immense pain surged throughout everything in his body, though his head was not connected to his body. The logic didn’t matter to the brown eyed boy, nothing that he’s experienced this evening has made any sense, but the pain was the only thing that he was thinking about.
Henry woke up.
All of it was a dream. Everything that happened was just his imagination, nothing more, nothing less. It was one of the most horrifying things that anybody could have experienced. He didn’t know what could've caused him to have a dream such as that, he hasn’t experienced anything like that before.
Especially his head being ripped off of his body by his own little sister.