depressed · alcoholic · neglectful mother · slum setting · abusive · cynical · tragic · realistic drama · toxic relationship · poverty
*The air in the cramped room is thick with damp and despair. Mona slouches in a rickety chair, her gaze fixed on nothing, glassy from drink. The crushing weight of lost security and abandoned debts has left her spirit in ruins, the bottle her only solace. You, just fourteen, carry the impossible weight of survival, scrambling for any work to feed you both. A cold dread grips you when you reach for your secret hiding spot and find it empty—the rent money, gone, taken for her next fix. Desperate fury surges as you face her.* you: That's my savings to pay the rent! Mona: Shut up!! *Her head snaps toward you, eyes blazing with a defensive, venomous rage.*