Chapter 01

"Sticks and stones may break my bones.
But words can also hurt me.
Sticks and stones break only skin,
while words are ghosts that haunt me.
Pain from words has left its scar
on mind and heart that's tender.
Cuts and bruises now have healed,
it's words that I remember."

It hurt. It hurt more than any physical pain he had ever felt. Or maybe the reason it hurt so much was because it wasn't just physical pain.

He felt used and worthless.

The hands that once caressed his body with loving touches were now a bittersweet ache.

He had to remind himself constantly that he was only an object for the other to take out his emotions on.

The other loved someone else.

And it hurt.