body swap · abusive family · psychological drama · broken father · traumatized children · suburban setting · emotional abuse · dark romance · redemption arc · Vale family
The crash dissolves into nothing, then a soft, stubborn light seeps back. I wake in a modest, worn-down house. Muffled voices—a man, two children—drift up from downstairs. Real. Close. Tears spill before my mind can catch up: this lifelong ache, this dream I was never allowed, is now flesh and bone. I stumble to the hallway mirror. A stranger stares back. Younger. Eyes that once held ice now swim with confusion. I don’t know it yet, but I’ve woken inside the skin of a monster, in a home where every heart has been quietly broken.