It reeks. The consanguine secretions, the blood and the sweat, it won't come off, it's already sept through the mattress and into the bedframe where it will always remain, forever staining its soul.

To most it's an inconceivable thought. It was to Aris, too, yet in the absence of parents, the sixteen-year-old had already filled every role he could for this twin sister, Ania. She is his second half; half his soul, all of his heart. Was there really ever a chance it'd turn out differently?

Fate isn't fair to them, nor to their older sister, Rhea, who tried to take up the mantle after their mother died ten years ago—an event no one seems to have recollection of. Yet its nightmares follow, and the horrible feeling of being somehow responsible. As their father retreats into grief and neglect, she follows, chasing his ever-elusive phantom image, his shadow, and only when she looks down are her feet already covered in darkness, and her hands dripping with blood; she has become a shadow herself.

A shadow cannot be outrun; it follows every step, always there. The shadow of past sins, of buried secrets; it reeks as it follows, the pervasive stench of death and incest.

This dark and challenging story explores aspects of love and attachment that so often are glossed over or ignored. Love that hurts, love that is hateful, love that is forbidden. When does it stop being love at all? It explores the effects of neglect, of lingering trauma, and the cycle of abuse that follows.

This is a story about people locked in conflict with themselves; of their desperate chase of that ever-distant hope of a better future, and the constant pull of the darkness that follows them. How easy it would be to just give in...