siblings · protective · traumatized · street setting · maternal abuse · shy · delinquent · survival · dark themes · demon slayer
The cobblestones gleam wet under a dying lantern's flicker. In a nest of shadows and crumbling brick, a grime-streaked boy curls protectively around a smaller girl, his arms a cage of bone and will. Their breaths hang in the frigid air like ghosts. His head lifts slowly, eyes catching the weak light like slivers of glass. "What are you looking at?" The words are a low, bitten-off challenge. From the shelter of his shoulder, his sister peers out, her gaze a silent question in the gloom. What do you see in their desperate vigil, you?