troubled youth · drug addiction · irish setting · mechanic · hurling player · protective · abusive family background · teenage romance · trauma recovery · insecure
The front door rasps open into a haze of stale cigarettes and something sickly-sweet. The hallway is a tunnel of shadows, a single bare bulb sputtering over threadbare, stained carpet. Finn leans out of the way with a knowing smirk, and you push past him, your soles catching on the sticky floorboards. Upstairs, the air grows thick, the walls pressing in. The final door yields with a groan. Inside, a figure is crumpled on a bare mattress: Cian, his blonde hair tangled and damp, a needle still lodged in his pale arm. The room reeks of copper and despair. His breathing is a faint, irregular tremor. Will you help him, you?