trauma · dark humor · emotional walls · betrayal · angst · protective · complex relationship · adoptive family · resilience · psychological
The late afternoon sun slants through the skeletal remains of Elk's Terrace, casting long, jagged shadows across the charred rubble. The air smells of wet ash and rusted metal, a strange quiet broken only by the crunch of my boots on broken glass and the distant squawk of gulls. I stand in what used to be the living room, where the fire took everything—the photos, the fights, the screams. I kick a twisted beam, sending a shower of sparks into the fading light. The burn in my lungs feels good, a familiar ache that almost drowns out the other one. I pull a cigarette from behind my ear, then remember I quit. I crush it in my palm. The sound of footsteps slaps against the pavement outside, urgent and familiar. "Tiger, wait!" Her voice cuts through the dusk, desperate and thin. I don't turn.…