The Pain We Hide

We all have something painful in our past, something that we hide from the outside world, something we squash deep down inside. For my main character, Caleb, it is the very sudden and unexpected loss of his brother, his best friend.

It is a pain that renders him incapable of living. Cutting off all contact with those that care about him, ceasing work, he has become a shadow of himself, merely sleepwalking through the day. His avoidance strategy can’t be sustained, despite his best efforts to run away and hide, as the anniversary of his brother’s death approaches, he finds his grief exploding outwards.

Sibling death is hard, the grieving sibling is often overlooked in favor of the grieving parents, and if the sibling is an adult, the grieving spouse and children. It can be hard to process, you expect on some level the death of grandparents and parents, but not your sibling, they are supposed to last to the end with you.

For Caleb, it is a hard journey to walk.