Wait And Bleed Corey watched as the misty water swirled within the tub. He sat, kneeling, next to the tub, his mind absorbed by the steam rising from its contents. The steam reminded him of the winter scenes he had read about in storybooks when he was younger. A family sitting around on the floor, drinking hot chocolate, and watching the fire as they talked and lauhed about the events of the day. The sound of the hot water rushing from the tap almost silenced the sound of Corey's heart pounding in his ears...almost. Corey came back to reality when he felt the scalding water hitting his knees. He had let the tub overflow, again. When he turned off the tap Corey noticed a deep silence, like what he imagined it to sound like if he were all alone in the furthest reaches of space, or even the deepest canals in the ocean. He forced himself to climb into the tub despite the fact that as soon as his skin touched the water it burned. It wasn't a regular burn, not like touching a pan that had just been retrieved from the oven. This was a real burn, a burn so severe he could almost hear it. The sound of the skin tightening around his muscles and then bubbling until it looked and felt like it was going to slide off left Corey with a vivid mental picture. There he was, a skeleton, sitting in the tub with gashes all over him floating on the surface of the water. Once he layed back in the tub, Corey picked up the blade that he had torn from his Gillete razor and his boxcutter. Holding one in each hand, he studied them, trying to decide which was a better weapon. He felt more comfortable with the razor blade because he had used it before. His eyes twitched and he focused on the boxcutter. He noted its advantages, it was much sharper than a razor blade so it would undoubtedly have a better entry and leave a cleaner cut. Finally, Corey made up his mind. He decided to use the boxcutter. He let go of the razor blade and watched as it splashed into the water and disappeared under his legs. Corey drew his left wrist up to his chest where he studied the many intricate pattterns of lines where the skin folded. He decided to make a straight cut from the far left to a point slightly past the middle on the right side. Just as he tore his skin with the blade and felt the feeling of relief that it had caused he heard his mother's voice calling him. He ignored her as he watched a steady stream of blood run into the water that distracted Corey from the task at hand. He heard his name once more before he opened his eyes and found himself in his bed. It had been a dream after all. Corey had had this dream many times before and found that his mind was consumed by its memory. He had never told anybody about these dreams, and didnt have any plans to. He just pretended that everything was okay. He walked around smiling and laughing all day. But his cheerful outside was just covering up the pain that he felt on the inside. His smiles were merely masks. That night Corey had the same dream again. He had been having different variations of the dream for many months but on that night it felt different, somehow. Usually the dream was a only a simple picture in his head with sounds and what he imagined his actions would feel like. But on this night he moved around on his bed because he could actually feel the pain. When he slipped into the baths boiling water he let out a quiet whimper as he felt his skin scream out in pain. Then when he touched the blade to his wrist he felt a sharp pain that rocketed through his arm and straight to his head. The dream had never felt or seemed so real. Then at the same time as always Corey heard his mother calling for him. He opened his eyes expecting to be enveloped in his bed but instead he found himself surrounded by steaming water with a dark red tint. He lifted his wrists out of water and saw the slices in their surfaces. Corey's vision began to fade, everything was blurry and there was black dots at the edges of his vision. Pictures flashed though his mind, only they were of his death rather than his life. They were like pictures taken from his dream. Then just before his body went limp and his head slipped beneath the surface of the water Corey whipspered " inside my shell i wait and bleed".