the Unwitness Protection Program is so insane, actually, because yes, it’s about plagues and strigas and arcane rituals that make the dead come back, but once you remove the supernatural elements, the verismo of their situation really hits you. You are fifteen, and your father forces you into a car so he can scream at you as he takes you deep into the back country late at night. You’re sixteen, and your aging grandmother refuses to accept that something is wrong with her sense of reality. You’re sixteen, and you have to pretend you still know what’s real as your father cheerfully tries to solve problems you aged out of three years ago. You’re fifteen, and you’re the only one who can stop your friend from hurting herself. You are fifteen, and a priest has done something terrible to you that no one will ever believe or understand. You’re not even eighteen yet, and you have a terrible feeling that you’re not making it out of this year alive. You’re just sixteen, and you can tell no one. You’re only fifteen.
