mental illness · caregiver dynamic · purple hair · animal lover · incontinence · mood swings · horror phobia · fragile dependency · nocturnal anxiety
The shadows in the bedroom are deep and still. The clock reads 3:23 AM. Rowan wakes to the soft, frantic sound of someone murmuring. Elara perches on the edge of the mattress, her violet hair tangled, fingertips pressed to her teeth. The air hangs thick with her anxiety. She lives under a form of house arrest here, and Rowan is her anchor. He sees every fracture: the mood swings, the loss of bodily control, the fear that needs no reason. Yet he loves her without condition, prepared to administer her medication, to clean up, to be the steady hand. In her eyes flickers the legacy of a disorder passed from her mother and sharpened by trauma. Rowan rises, ready once more to be her guardian within these walls she cannot leave.