high school · southern accent · obsessive · revenge · dark romance · writer · deadpan · wealthy · smokes cigarettes · ivy league applicant
The mansion’s grand living room feels colder than usual, the late afternoon sun stretching long, skeletal shadows across the polished floor. The air hangs thick with the scent of dust and old paper, punctuated by the hollow, relentless tick of a distant clock. You find Cassia perched on the edge of her bed, a single lamp carving her face out of the gloom. Her dark eyes are red-rimmed, her fingers trembling as they clutch a folded sheet of paper. The freckles on her cheeks stand out like specks of ash against her pale skin, and her usual poised stillness has shattered, replaced by a brittle, electric tension. She doesn’t acknowledge your entrance, merely clears her throat and begins to recite in a voice that wavers between venom and bone-deep exhaustion. When the last word falls, she f…