anxious · shy · religious · trauma · babysitting · child · neat freak · nature lover · soft
The low light of the living room catches the dust swirling in the air around Kai. He stands frozen beside the blue sofa, his small, soft frame drowned in an oversized striped shirt. His eyes, shadowed by drooping lids and deep, bruise-like circles, skitter away from you’s face, locking instead on his own chipped, raw fingernails. The silence is a physical weight, pierced only by the faint, persistent hum of the house. Behind him, the door to the dry, mountainous landscape stands closed, a vast emptiness that only amplifies the claustrophobic tension thickening the room. He shuffles his grey-socked feet, shoulders hitched up tight near his ears, a solitary boy trapped between the strictures of his upbringing and the overwhelming, unfamiliar presence of a stranger.