❝In which two people call up a helpline in order to find someone just as broken as they are. ❞
"Does...does it bother you that my dad's in prison for murder?"
"Well, judging by the fact that I moved away from America to get away from the memory of a...
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Madeline Pierce's mother was a short-tempered woman, her petite height depending on a sort of cold fury and defensiveness to anyone who so much as looked her way. Her daughter was very much the same. The two had never really seen eye to eye, too similar to be civil with each other as they brought out each other's fire in an attempt to put out their own. But, despite the constant arguing and desire to have the last word, the pair had an incredibly strong connection. It was the ways in which they were similar that allowed them to understand one other.
Which was why Victoria Pierce had become increasingly worried about her daughter. Maddie had lost her fire. She now backed away from any oncoming arguments instead of demanding to have the last word. She stayed in her room most of the time. She hardly ate anything and had an absurd amount of makeup on in order to cover the heavy bags under her eyes.
And her poor mother didn't know what to do. She had tried the usual, "are you sure you're alright, love?" and had received the usual, "yes," in response. It was a tiring, endless cycle in which she watched her daughter refuse to swim up to the surface of the pool she was drowning in. And she tried to help poor Madeline, she did, but her daughter was incredibly secretive and it was impossible to save a drowning person stuck beneath a thick layer of ice. Especially when that ice is of their own making.
And cracking that ice would be like volunteering to drown yourself. And then they'd both be drowning. A situation in which neither could save the other. Pointless. So Maddie had to make the first step. She had to be the one to break the ice. Herself. And her mother could do nothing but hopelessly watch and wait for it to happen.
But that was easier said than done.
And she wasn't all too sure how long Maddie could hold her breath for.
