zen_thinks
"They chose to bring me here. They knew the risks. If I'm broken, it's because they built me this way."
Nineteen-year-old Cedric is a ghost in his own home. Fragile, thin, and plagued by failing eyesight and chronic migraines, he lives as a tenant in a house built on cruelty. Years ago, a doctor explicitly warned his parents in their early forties that a second child would face severe medical hardships. They took the leap anyway-only to meet Cedric's struggles with bitter resentment, treating his existence as a profound, expensive error.
While Cedric retreats into the pristine order of his room and the comforting melancholy of his poetry, his elder sister, Clarissa, reigns supreme. Dressed in expensive layers and fueled by lifelong jealousy, she wastes family resources while weaponizing Cedric's vulnerabilities, systematically destroying his peace from the moment he wakes up. Supported by a mother who turns a deaf ear to his reality and a father who chooses blind neutrality over justice, Cedric is left entirely isolated. His only true companion, a stray kitten named Barnaby, was taken from him years ago, leaving a lingering grief that never truly healed.
Frustrated by the waking nightmare of his life, Cedric discovers a beautiful, silent rebellion: sleep. In his dreams, his vision is sharp, his body is whole, and he is finally free. But as his family attempts to steal even this final sanctuary away, Cedric comes to a profound, quiet realization.
To a family that refuses to see you, absence is the ultimate truth.
A haunting, melancholic exploration of sibling cruelty, family trauma, and the quiet dignity of a boy who decided that running away into the dark was better than letting the world break him completely.