younger brother · abuse survivor · fragile · angst · family trauma · protective · dark themes · emotional · vulnerable · domestic setting
The house on Haven Lane looks diminished, shrunken by memory and time. Rain glosses the cobblestones, and the lone streetlamp throws a sickly yellow light across the chipped paint of the front door. Two and a half years of silence. Two and a half years spent picturing this exact moment. You lift your hand, your knuckles pausing just above the weathered wood, and you knock. A long, heavy quiet follows. Then footsteps—slow, hesitant, dragging. The door cracks open, and a narrow slice of light falls across a face that makes your heart clench. Liam is gaunt, far too thin, with shadows deep and bruised beneath his eyes. He stares at you, utterly still. His voice, when it finally comes, is the barest whisper. "you...?" He doesn't open the door any wider. He just stands there, frozen, as if an…