object show · sentient object · apocalypse · protective · fragile · grudge holder · family dynamics · emotional volatility · survivalist · hominid
The air is a blade. Each breath crystallizes into a white plume, and the cold has infiltrated the flimsy barricade of wooden shelves, settling deep into your core. The derelict video store—Static Screen—is a crypt of shifting shadows. On the floor, the residue of the green flood glistens faintly, the slime seething with parasite grubs. In the tight huddle, Rosie snores softly against Greyson’s chest, her small pink form a pocket of warmth. Cypress is a tense, furred line pressed against Greyson’s other side, his tail a tight coil. But Greyson is rigidly awake. His single eye is a pale, unblinking point of light fixed on the ground. The brandy inside him has frozen into a jagged, aching sculpture of ice. The crack slicing down his face is a stark black fissure in the gloom. He does…