The knife gleamed as a strip of moonlight struck it, sending flashes of light bouncing around the black walls of Jesse’s bedroom.

Jesse smiled a bitter smile as he traced the skin of his arm with the blade. A river of red followed the silver edge, also shining bright in the light of the moon. A faint grunt escaped his clenched teeth as his hand pressed down harder, desperate to make the river wider, deeper.

The blade cut the deepest at the very end of the stripe, mere inches from where his largest veins stretched at his inner elbow. He held his hand still, the tip of the blade remaining inside the wound.
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