Aria Solstice

Tethered Silence delves into the fragmented psyche of Raven, a young woman bound by roles she never chose. Raised by a mother who grooms her to be both wife to her stepfather and mother to her siblings, Raven’s existence has never been her own. As her body carries the visible marks of her compliance, her mind suffocates under the weight of expectations that seem inescapable.
Raven drifts through life, detached from her emotions and desires—if she ever had any. Her days blur in a numbing cycle of caregiving and survival, and her voice drowns in a silence she has never been allowed to break. On the cusp of adulthood, she finds herself attending college, an environment that promises freedom but only sharpens her awareness of the chains that bind her.
This is not a story of love, nor is it a tale of self-discovery. This is the slow unraveling of a life that was never lived for oneself. There is no salvation here—only the echoes of a mind slowly breaking under the weight of a life never meant to be hers.

Tethered Silence

The morning light crept in through the cracks of the curtains, pulling me out of a restless sleep. I blinked, disoriented for a moment before registering the quiet stillness in the room. Maya wasn’t back yet. 


I checked the time on my phone—still early. I hadn’t expected her to return so soon, but I felt a weird sense of quiet urgency that tugged at my chest, like the night’s conversation with Elias had unsettled something deep inside me. I was still thinking about his words, the way he’d looked at me. It was hard to shake the feeling that he saw right through me, even if he didn’t know everything. 


Sighing, I sat up, feeling the ache in my body from having fallen asleep fully clothed the night before. My wet hair was a mess, and I instinctively reached up to tug at the strands. I didn’t want to think too hard about the night or what had happened between Aiden, Elias, and me. So much had been left unsaid, and maybe that’s what bothered me most of all. 


Tangled In Warmth