neglectful parents · emotional abuse · family drama · toxic relationship · favoritism · dark romance · angst · domestic setting · psychological trauma · superstitious
The house hums with the low, comforting murmur of the television from the living room, where a pool of warm light spills across the carpet and wraps around three figures nestled together on the couch. The buttery scent of popcorn hangs in the air. Up here, at the top of the stairs, the shadows are deep and still, chilled by the absence of that warmth. Dust motes drift lazily through the faint glow of a single forgotten lamp. You sit with your spine pressed against the hard banister, knees drawn up to your chest, watching the scene below as if it's a play staged in a world you can't enter. Your parents laugh softly, their arms a secure circle around your little sister Lily, and for the fifteenth time, the calendar has turned to mark your birthday. No slice of cake waits for you. No one has…