CHAPTER 144 [ Closet Ghosts ] TRIGGER WARNING: Slightly disturbing contents (Seb’s inces*tous tendencies and assaul*t) ~SEBASTIAN~ (7) She was wearing next to nothing. Her legs were bare in those shorts that barely passed for farbric. Her tank top was too thin, clinging to her in the dim blue
CHAPTER 143 [ Daddy’s Redemption Story ] ~SEBASTIAN~ (6) Ten days since the old man kicked the bucket. Five since they lowered him into the ground. And what did I have to show for it? Absolutely nothing. Not a single damn thing to show for it. No closure. No answers. No cut of the life I was s
CHAPTER 142 [ I Forgive You ] ~SOPHIE~ I didn’t pray. Not because I didn’t believe in prayers, but because I didn’t know what to ask for.That he’d live? That I’d make it in time? That it wouldn’t hurt this much? It all felt hopeless. The car ride was a blur. The tears I thought I’d emptied back
CHAPTER 141 [ His Final Breath ] ~SOPHIE~ Grief doesn’t scream. It doesn’t crash into you like a wave. It creeps in slowly, soft as a whisper, until you’re drowning and don't even notice the tide coming in. It’s in the way your chest tightens during a silent car ride. It’s in the way the world bl
CHAPTER 140 [ My Old Man ] ~SEBASTIAN~ (5) I stared at her, wondering what was news about my father being at the hospital. It took me a second but the pieces clicked eventually and for the first time since I left that darned cell, I felt excitement simmering underneath my skin. “It’s time?” I as
CHAPTER 139 [ What Freedom Feels Like ] ~SEBASTIAN~ (4) The cell door scraped open with a loud metallic groan. I didn’t move right away. Someone was probably getting released again and it wasn’t me. “You there!” An officer barked, the one who always picks his nose and wipes it on his pants. Bein