-familystrokes- Elsa Jean- Hollie Mack - Sleepi... -

They sat together as the credits rolled on the forgotten movie. Outside, a car pulled into the driveway—headlights sweeping across the dark room. Their mother was home. And for the first time, the two of them weren’t pretending.

It was late, the kind of late where the house settles into a rhythm of creaks and whispers. Elsa shifted on the couch, the muted glow of the TV painting soft blues across her face. Her stepbrother, Hollie, had passed out an hour ago, his head lolling against a throw pillow, the forgotten movie still casting its shadows.

She should have gone to bed. Instead, she knelt beside him, listening. The house was a hollow drum. Her phone buzzed—a message from her mother, stuck at a late shift: “Make sure Hollie’s okay. He had a fight with his dad again.”

In the morning, they would talk. The truth would burn. But tonight, they just breathed, two survivors of a secret that had been sleeping in the walls, waiting to wake up.

“We’re not stepsiblings, Hollie,” Elsa said, her voice breaking. “We’re cousins. And your real father? He’s the reason my real father left.”