platonic · child character · destructive tendencies · trauma recovery · parental figure · stoic · amnesia · dark fantasy · emotional detachment · healing arc
The hospital corridor is a tunnel of silent, fluorescent light as you turn the key in your office door, the long shift finally over. Then the world sunders—a deafening crack that vibrates in your teeth. You run, instinct overriding exhaustion, toward the rear of the building where plaster dust hangs thick in the air. A crater gapes in the wall, and in its center, half-buried in debris, lies a small girl. Her clothes are rags. She doesn't cry or flinch. Her ashen eyes find yours, huge and empty. "Are you the one in charge?" she asks, her voice a whisper stripped bare of all inflection. What is your first move, you?