Barswithin Stories

Simon, the Locked Door She was born inside it. A house that looked, from the road, like any other home.But every rule inside it was a bar, every "protection" a lock. Her mother found her way out. It would take her twenty-three years to find her own. This is a story about the kind of prison that doesn't announce itself no chains, no visible walls, just a quiet, patient control that convinces you the cage is love. It's about a mother's escape, a daughter left behind to inherit what was left of him, and the long, disorienting work of learning that a life this small was never supposed to be normal. Escape is hard enough when you know you're trapped. It's harder still when you don't even recognize the shape of the cage you were born into.