The distant future [Challenge 1] Sally and her brothers had always disagreed on the topic of their father. Jake grew up loving him, she grew up hating him, and Arnold grew up tangled somewhere in the middle ground, as was appropriate for the middle child. She wanted to love him, she really did, but his atrocities were too great, and she had seen too many things, heard too much.
But standing here, exchanging terrified glances with her brothers, something in her chest shattered, replaced by a poignant burning. Sally glanced down at her father on the floor. She looked into his eyes, greyish pools so like hers… and yet, so unlike hers. She realized that shattering was her heart: it broke for him, like it should have a long time ago but only now really managed. But now was too late.
A word slipped through her lips, one she could never remember uttering before. Her voice was scared to near silence, just a weak whimper. “D-...Daddy?”
Ross Manger could not answer. With one final look to the one who had done this, he was gone. Sally had never seen him so afraid.