The Snake And The Sparrow

Rattle doesn't speak much-doesn't need to. His silence is louder than most people's screams. After surviving years of abuse, he's learned how to vanish in plain sight, to drift through life as little more than smoke wrapped in skin. But when his mother leaves him fractured and hollow, even disappearing feels like too much effort.

At school, he's a ghost everyone avoids. He expects nothing else. That is, until two new students arrive: Arson, all fire and fury, and Sparrow, quiet but sharp-eyed-like the bird Rattle watched through the gym window. Something shifts. For the first time, someone doesn't flinch. For the first time, someone sees him.

Set against the backdrop of school hallways and bleeding memories, this story follows Rattle as he navigates trauma, isolation, and the terrifying possibility of being understood. With a mind that slips between bleak reality and poetic detachment, and a body covered in scars both visible and unseen, Rattle begins to unravel-slowly, beautifully, dangerously.

A quiet monster. A boy named Sparrow. And the sharp edge of being alive.