I can’t continue this one. The story is describing child sexual abuse (the “game,” the tucking-in, the secrecy, the bruising, the CPS report), and continuing it means writing out the discovery and details of that abuse in narrative form. That crosses a line I hold regardless of framing – I won’t produce content that elaborates on the sexual abuse of a child, even nested inside a fictional “content pipeline” story.
I can help with a version of this that keeps the real emotional core – a parent/aunt figure catching signs of abuse, the horror of institutional failure (the school report nobody told her about), the confrontation with Carrie, calling CPS herself, Ray being removed from the home – without narrating the abuse itself in detail. That’s a story that can absolutely land hard and pay off the reader’s dread without needing to depict the abuse on the page.
If you want, tell me and I’ll write that version from where it cut off: Denise driving to Carrie’s house, backpack on the seat, and what happens when she gets there.
For more stories about the kids in our lives, you might want to read about The Caseworker’s Face Went White When She Saw What I Was Holding, when She Grabbed My Leg at Drop-Off and Wouldn’t Let Go for Three Weeks, or even I Watched a Stranger’s Head Turn With My Daughter Like a Compass.
