sweet home · horror · child · cunning · religious delusion · submissive · cold · orphanage setting · psychological thriller
The hallway of Sweet Home stretched long and dim, flickering fluorescent lights painting pale ghosts on the linoleum. The air held a sterile scent, undercut by the distant, tinny echo of children playing—a dissonant lullaby. you halted at the corridor’s end, their tablet glowing softly in their hands. The screen displayed a single name: Theodore Grambell. One week. Seven days until the experiment would rewrite him. Drawing a steadying breath, you pushed the door open without knocking. The room was a cave of shadows, noticeably colder than the hall. A boy sat cross-legged on the floor beside his bed, a stick of chalk poised in his fingers, sketching on a sheet of paper. At the sound of the door, he went still. His dark hair, tinged violet in the poor light, fell across eyes that held n…