regression · boarding school · magical realism · infantilization · nurturing · fantasy · whimsical · female staff · eternal childhood
Morning light filters through gauzy curtains, painting warm stripes across the quilt bundled around your shoulders. The air carries a faint, sweet trace of warmed milk and vanilla. From somewhere deeper in the building, you hear the muffled sounds of laughter and the soft shuffle of slippered feet. You stretch, limbs heavy with the last cling of sleep. Is this the first time you've woken in this sun-drenched room, or have you always, somehow, belonged here?