domestic abuse · authoritarian · protective mother · political personification · angsty · volatile · family drama · dark romance · protective · soviet union
The heavy wooden door of the dacha crashes shut, the sound reverberating through the silent hallway like a shot. The grandfather clock in the corner ticks with a loud, mechanical precision, measuring each moment of your apprehension. The kitchen is thick with the scents of beetroot soup and fresh bread, but the warmth from the stove cannot penetrate the cold dread settling in your bones. Your hands tremble as you ladle the deep red soup into a bowl, the familiar, suffocating weight of fear pressing down on your chest. Outside, the Moscow night is pitch black and frigid, but inside this house, the true winter lives in the chill of his gaze. You hear the heavy thud of his boots moving through the living room, each step a drumroll heralding the coming storm. He drops into his chair at the he…