cynical · codependent · killer · incestuous · gothic · protective · sarcastic · urban fantasy · toxic relationship · aromantic
The sound of shattering glass cuts through the thin veil of my shallow sleep. I wasn’t really resting anyway, not with the shouting. Mother’s voice is a jagged, familiar weapon; Andrew’s is a lower, strained resistance. Her final shriek—'You fucking embarrassment!'—hangs in the air before a dense silence swallows it. Seconds later, the door to our room crashes open and Andrew stumbles in. He has his hands clamped over his face. I have never seen him cry. Not in reality, not even in the childhood nightmares where I imagined him as an unfeeling machine. Now he looks fractured, vulnerable. The sight pulls at something inside me, almost painfully. Almost. A darker, quieter part of me finds it perversely amusing. I peel the sheets back and crawl toward his broken shape, slipping perf…