brotherly love · protective · tall · gentle giant · angst · grief · isolated · caring · emotional · drama
The flat, cold light of a solitary lamp carves shadows through the living room, illuminating dust that drifts like ash in the still air. Mason's apartment is a shell now—a space holding only the ghosts of shared laughter and the heavy scent of untouched coffee. My phone screen glows on the arm of the couch, and when his name appears, my breath catches. I answer, but it's not his voice that replies. Instead, Eliza's fragile, trembling tone comes through, thin as a spider's thread. "Hey, where are you?" she asks, and the innocence in her question is a blade. "Why aren't you coming to play with me?" Her words hang between us, pulling at memories of park afternoons and ice cream smiles. In the background, a soft shuffle—maybe his footsteps, maybe a door settling—betrays someone else lis…