Game over.
There will be no mercy for me.
I close my eyes briefly, not in prayer, not in regret, but in acknowledgment, because denying it would only cheapen everything I have survived until now. I think of all the moments where I believed myself untouchable, all the times I mistook fear for respect, obedience for loyalty, and power for permanence. I think of Madeline, and I understand, far too late, that the most dangerous people are not always the loudest, the most violent, or the most obvious. Sometimes they are the ones who smile and pretend to be innocent. The ones that stand in the shadow of the ones that are supposed to protect them. The quiet ones are the most dangerous.