☂︎︎ HOUSE OF SHADOWS ☂︎︎ - five hargreeves

* 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙻𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝙺𝚗𝚘𝚠 *

[020]
- ☾ '☂︎︎' ☽ -

           It was so incredibly dry. The blanket, the air, her mouth. Even the fabric of the couch Cassdy laid on felt like desert sand rather than smooth leather. The room was dimly lit but it was obviously daytime, probably around midday as the sunlight snuck through the curtains from the top of the window. It shone on her face, burning through her eyelids.

           Cassidy had the uncomfortable feeling of someone who is very dirty. She'd fallen asleep in her clothes, her hair was a mess, and she felt like she'd been cooking in the blanket she was wrapped in. She threw it off.

           Suddenly, her mouth didn't feel so dry anymore.

           She leaned over the couch and threw up into a meticulously placed bucket near her head. A furry hand patted her back as she wiped sweat from her forehead.

          "I hate this part."

           Pogo, chuckled lightly and helped her sit up as she groaned and rubbed her head. The headache was back again, she felt like her skull was being crushed between two cinder blocks. Pogo opened her hand and placed a blood red pill into it.

           "I hate these pills," she grumbled, popping it into her mouth. "I hate this whole situation, Pogo. What is happening to our family? Why can't they just get along, we're grown adults!"

           Pogo sighed and patted her hand again.

           "You're brothers and sisters have never been quite as . . . intellectually developed as you."

           I wouldn't exactly call what you have "development," that's not what the old man called it anyways. . . .

Cassidy leaned back again and rubbed the hem of her shirt between her fingers, ignoring the voice. It was gray, it was also Vanya's. It smelled like old paper and cotton scented detergent. Vanya hated the lavender kind, it flared up her allergies, especially at night when you could hear her sneeze from across the hallway. Five and Ben would sneak out and shove blankets underneath her door to muffle the sound so Reginald didn't wake up. Cassidy stayed awake, staring out into the darkness, trying to focus on anything else but Vanya's obnoxious allergies. The temptation to sneak into her room and strangle her with her own pillow seemed very appealing. Especially when the evil little voice in her brain gave her undesired encouragement.

           Her siblings were oblivious to this, as they were to many other things that had happened within the confines of the mansion.

           The locks on her door never stopped her. She always broke them, Pogo would have to replace them every night until Reginald found other ways to subdue her. Of course, no one knew that a soon-to-be murder slept a few doors down. Reginald felt that the condition of his other subjects remained perfect and was pressured to keep it that way. Having a bloodthirsty child that belonged in a psychiatric ward instead of a house filled with innocent children, didn't exactly make this an easy feat.