Dalton's home had become unrecognizable. After his father left, his mother spiraled further, bringing random men into the house at all hours. The floorboards began to rot, forming holes that spread like wounds. The house, once filled with angry shouting, now felt like it was decaying from the inside out. The air was thick with the stench of ammonia from uncleaned spaces, and the sense of despair was palpable.
For Dalton, his room became the only place of escape, his refuge from the chaos outside his door. But even there, he wasn't truly safe.
His mother would barge in, storming through his sanctuary, accusing him of everything that had gone wrong in her life. "This is all your fault!" she would scream, her voice echoing in the cramped space. "You're on his side, aren't you? Trying to sabotage me—just like your father!"
Every accusation chipped away at Dalton's already fragile mental state. He tried to shut her out, tried to lock the door and block out the noise, but she always found a way to force her way back in. No matter how hard he tried to escape, the weight of her words pressed down on him, suffocating him.
Then one day, his mother left. She didn't say goodbye. She didn't explain. She simply walked out, leaving Dalton alone in the crumbling house, surrounded by the mess she had made.
The isolation became unbearable.
Rats scurried through the walls, scratching and squeaking in the dead of night. Fleas infested the house, their bites leaving Dalton's legs covered in itchy red welts. One morning, he woke up with a rat crawling across his chest, and the disgust he felt turned into a deep, gnawing dread. When he left his room, black fleas would crawl up his legs, biting at his skin until he could barely stand it.
His room, once his only escape, now felt like a prison. The walls closed in around him, the stench of decay and ammonia filling the air. Dalton locked himself away, sealing himself off from the outside world. His computer screen became the only source of light in his life—the only thing that connected him to a world beyond the destruction of his home.
***
Anime became his refuge.
Hours bled into days as Dalton buried himself in anime, letting the bright, colorful worlds on screen pull him away from the harsh realities of his life. He watched episodes endlessly, barely noticing when the sun rose or set outside his window. When he wasn't watching, he was editing. The editing community became his only tether to reality, the only place where he felt some semblance of control.
But even as he edited and escaped into his favorite shows, the regrets weighed heavily on him. He should've been stronger. He should have been responsible. He should have been the person Vanessa had needed him to be. Instead, he had pushed her away, made bad decisions, and now he was left alone to wallow in his guilt.
The thoughts ate away at him every night. He replayed his moments with Vanessa over and over, wondering if he could have changed things—if he could have pulled through and been the boyfriend she deserved. He had fallen in love with her. And instead of doing something about it, he had let fear and guilt drive him to ruin everything.
But things took a brief turn when Dalton connected with someone in the editing community.
She lived nearby, and they started talking, bonding over their shared passion for anime and editing. For a while, it felt like a lifeline—someone who understood the world Dalton had created for himself. They started dating, but it didn't take long for Dalton to realize it wasn't real. He was emotionally detached, too consumed by his guilt and regret to truly connect with her.
It was nothing like what he had with Vanessa.
The relationship was doomed from the start, and Dalton knew it. But he went along with it, trying to convince himself that maybe it was enough—that maybe he could rebuild something with someone else. But the cracks were always there, and soon enough, it all fell apart.
It ended on his birthday.
The breakup hit him hard, but not in the way he expected.
Instead of feeling heartbreak, Dalton felt empty—like there was nothing left inside him. It was just another failure in a long line of things he had done wrong. His father took him out for dinner on his birthday, probably trying to make up for lost time. But Dalton barely noticed the effort. The food was tasteless, the conversation hollow. He couldn't even pretend to care.
All he could think about was everything he had failed to do. He had let Vanessa go. He had made bad choices, and now he was paying for them.
***
Later that night, as Dalton sat alone in his room, his phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen, expecting another pointless notification, but what he saw made his heart stop.
It was Vanessa.
Vanessa: Hey...
Dalton stared at the message, his heart pounding in his chest. After everything that had happened, after all the time that had passed, she had reached out to him. He didn't know what to say—didn't know how to respond to the girl he had been thinking about for so long.
He wanted to say so many things. He wanted to apologize, to explain, to try to fix what had been broken. But for the first time in a long time, he was speechless.
What now?