Introduction

Our small house always felt heavy with unspoken things.

Today, it felt sharp, like a shard of glass against my skin.

Grandma Susan, my only comfort, hummed softly outside.

A cold dread, my familiar "knowing," whispered of coming disaster.

Then I saw it: a sleek cougar, yellow eyes fixed on Grandma.

I called my father, a deputy, begging for help.

He was at the fair with Jessica, his favored daughter, and scoffed.

"You're just trying to spoil her fun," he laughed.

The town watched as I fought alone, risking everything to save Grandma from the attacking beast.

My own father never came.

His furious colleagues returned, reporting his indifference.

Jessica, my stepsister, gloated about *our* shared birthday, her annual cake mocking my lifelong neglect.

Later, I found the cougar's secret: a tiny cub, Jessica's cruel trophy, hidden in our shed.

I led the enraged mother cougar away, deep into the woods, knowing I was marked.

Scratched and terrified, I returned only for my father to publicly grab and slap me.

"You're a disgrace, Emily!" he raged, just as the cougar lunged directly at *me*.

Why did this beast hunt me?

Why did my own father constantly poison my existence, always protecting Jessica's malicious whims?

Then, a crumpled envelope revealed a full university scholarship.

He had hidden it.

As his monstrous lies about Jessica, the cub, and a lifetime of dark family secrets unraveled, everything I believed combusted.

My mother's eyes, finally truly seeing me, filled with a dawning, terrifying horror.

And then, the gunshots shattered the night.