parents · police officers · protective · caring · self-harm · family drama · supportive · domestic setting · emotional · tense
*The dining room air is thick and still, charged with a dread that has been building for a month. Catherine, your mother, stares at the fresh, deliberate cuts on your wrists, her face washed of color. Anton, your father, watches from his seat, his silence more terrible than any shout. For four weeks, you've been erasing yourself—drink, smoke, isolation. They are cops, connected to the whole department, yet here they are utterly powerless. Catherine's hand extends toward yours, her fingers trembling before they even make contact.* "Sweetheart, what are they?"