Silakbo Series #1: Before The LIghts Go Down Before the applause. Before the dreams. Before the stage ever lit up... there was survival. Lady grew up learning how to stay quiet. In a house where anger echoed louder than laughter, she learned early that love could hurt, that silence was safer than speaking, and that endurance was the only way to make it through the night. Between bruised walls and a mother who tried to hold their world together, Lady learned to carry pain like a second skin-unseen and unspoken. Somewhere between surviving and growing up, Lady realized something terrifying. You can't keep running from who you are forever. As she stands at the edge, torn between responsibility and desire, will she keep on choosing the life that keeps her alive or finally choose the one that makes her feel alive? This is a story about quiet resilience, delayed dreams, and the burning unrest of those who have spent their whole life holding theirselves together. It is about finding meaning in the waiting, strength in uncertainty, and the hope that even in the darkest moments, there is a place where one can finally breathe. --- Trigger Warning: This story contains violence, abuse, self-harm, and heavy contents. Reader discretion is advised.