Safe

The house on the edge of Rockport is rotting from the inside out. So is the family within it.

Seven-year-old Audrey Mortimer knows the rules of survival. Be small. Be silent. Be invisible. Hiding behind a curtain of mousy hair, she navigates the dilapidated halls of her coastal home like a ghost, her only defender a tiny terrier named Porky.

To the neighbors, her mother Ava is just an eccentric recluse. But Audrey knows the truth behind the caked-on makeup and the smile that never reaches the eyes. She knows the weight of the silence in the house. She knows that the driftwood gun she uses to shoot imaginary aliens is the only protection she has against the real monster down the hall.

Audrey's world is a grey, suffocating box-the one saving grace is Aunty Aiko. Beautiful, vibrant, and kind, Aiko brings color into a black-and-white world. But in a house built on secrets and pain, hope is a dangerous thing.

As the sea mist rolls in and the walls close tighter, Audrey realizes that her mother's madness goes deeper than she ever imagined.

She calls this house home. She calls this woman Mother. But she has never been safe.