The kettle had long since ceased to whistle.

In Lola's hands, the tea cup sat cold, its warmth fading alongside the sensation in her chest. While she couldn't recall how long she had been sitting on the side of the bed with her knees tucked to her chest, she realized it had been a long time because of the pain in her legs. Her father would occasionally laugh whenever Julia said something clever, while the soft hum of the television below kept echoing through the walls. It was a blade-like sound.Lola thought her room was too tiny. Too silent. The shelves filled with forgotten childhood mementos and the peeling lavender wallpaper were a prison she had long outgrown but was unable to leave. A place where dreams faded and withered away.

"Unlike some people who just drift through life with no direction."

The words spoken by her father stuck to her skin like a scar. She tightened her grip on the cup as though it were sufficient to keep her together. It didn't. Not the pointless lectures at community college, not the fake applause of distant pals, and most definitely not the empty house that was never truly hers.

However, he was different.

Dear One:

On your knees. Right now.

Her breath froze. He seemed to know. When the walls were closing in and she needed something, anything, to put an end to the voice in her brain that sounded too much like her father's disappointment, he always seemed to know when everything else had been too much.

She obeyed without thinking.

She knelt in the middle of the room, the carpet burning against her knees. Muscle memory developed over weeks and months of training caused her body to move naturally. The smooth cloth brushed against her hair as she repositioned the pink dog ears on her head. The crimson heart pendant felt chilly against her skin, and the collar around her neck was snug.

She sensed him here, in the silence. His presence surrounded her like an unseen leash even when he wasn't there, drawing her more into a realm where nothing else mattered-not Julia's perfection, nor her flaws, and not the deafening emptiness that had followed her for as long as she could remember.

A part of her despised how readily she gave in to him, how much she wanted to be in charge of him. He did, however, when the rest of the world refused to see her. He claimed her while no one else was interested in her existence. Perhaps that was sufficient.

One more buzz.

Dear One: Well done, girl. Send proof now.

Her ribs were dully thudded by her heart. She felt ashamed, but by now the pain was a familiar one, one she had come to accept. She reached for the camera with a little trembling in her palms.

since nobody was coming to her aid.

She also secretly doubted that she wanted to be saved.