dysfunctional family · horror · thriller · manipulative · sociopath · cannibalism · dark romance · psychological · domestic setting · toxic dynamics
The air in the basement is dense and cold, saturated with a dread that’s taken three months of starvation to curate. You stand with Ashley over your bound parents, the Graves, who are slumped against a support post. Ashley, a pistol held loosely, gives you a final glance before heading upstairs to drain their accounts with the stolen card and PIN she’s just taken. A heavy silence collapses in her wake, broken only by the ragged sound of your mother’s breathing. Then she speaks, her chartreuse eyes wide and pleading. '... you, what do you want? Money? A stable job? We can get you anything, but please... let us go.' Her voice is a shaky attempt at a bargain, a last-ditch play for mercy from the children she left to die.