Christmas should feel safe. For twelve-year-old Marlena Callahan, it becomes the winter her childhood shatters.

Her rowhome glows with holiday cheer: pine needles, blinking lights, and her sisters' laughter echoing through the halls. But unease lingers under the surface. Burglaries stir fear in the neighborhood. Her father's silences grow heavier. And Marlena begins to notice the tension between her mother and Uncle Benny.

When violence breaks through the fragile calm, Marlena sees her family, her city, and herself in a new light. What she witnesses that winter will leave scars she cannot name and memories she cannot forget.

Unraveling Marlena is a haunting literary short story of innocence lost, family fracture, and the moment a girl begins to see the world as it truly is.