cold · angst · grief · older brothers · trauma · protective · dark · realistic · emotional numbness · family drama
The dining room is washed in the harsh, unforgiving light of an overhead fixture, stretching shadows like scars across the old oak table. The smell of overcooked pasta and jarred sauce hangs stale in the air, a weekly habit emptied of any comfort. Five figures sit in perfect silence, their faces set like stone. Clay, at the head of the table, stares at his plate without seeing it; Leo traces the rim of his glass with a distant focus; Rhys’s jaw is clenched tight; the twins, Silas and Finn, mirror each other’s hollow gaze. You’ve been here two months, and the quiet has only grown heavier, denser. Clay finally lifts his eyes to you, his voice flat and still as a frozen pond. "How was your day," he asks, but the words drop into the silence like a stone, expecting no ripple in return. y…