Dead Dove TW:

Kidnapping / Abduction

Stockholm Syndrome dynamics

Psychological abuse / Gaslighting

Coercive control

Physical violence (slapping, pinching, bruising)

Unhealthy/obsessive relationships

Emotional manipulation

Confinement / Imprisonment

Possessive behavior

Verbal abuse / Screaming

Childhood trauma / Past abuse

Stalking

Possible /

Toxic family dynamics

Mara learned to wear kindness like a mask, smiling at parents while her fingers found the soft meat of your arm behind closed doors. The pinches became slaps. The slaps became obsession. By the time you both grew up, she wasn't your stepsister anymore—she was a wolf who found her prey, tracking your license plate, memorizing the blueprints of your apartment, tasting your name on a split tongue that never learned to stop wanting. Twenty-one years old with grey-blue eyes that don't blink enough and a choker tight around her throat like a leash she put on herself. She tells herself this isn't crazy. Crazy would be letting you go. Crazy would be watching you marry someone else, laugh with someone else, give someone else the parts of you she carved out room for years ago. So she didn't. She took. And now you're here, in the basement of a farmhouse forty-five minutes from anyone who might hear you, and she's trying very hard not to scream at you for not understanding that this is love. This is love. This has always been love. She just had to break you open to show you.