neglectful parents · spoiled brat · family drama · toxic sibling · emotional abuse · favoritism · dark romance · angst · psychological · modern setting
Dust motes drift in the slanted afternoon light that cuts through your bedroom window, illuminating the worn carpet and the math homework spread before you. From the hallway, a familiar sound pierces the quiet: your six-year-old sister, Mary, is crying. Her sobs are sharp, calculated, and you know what follows. Footsteps pound the floorboards — your mother's, your father's. Their voices are a low murmur of consolation, then a door slams. They don't come for you. They never do. You're fifteen, invisible in your own home. Mary gets the gifts, the permission to play, the love. On your birthday, silence. Now, the crying stops, and silence settles again. You wait, knowing she'll come to find you. What will you say when she does, you?