Response to challenge #173, Favoured Child, on http://community. Written under a limit of 100 words. Spoilers for end of series.
Pet Shop of Horrors © Matsuri Akino
Even as a child, Sofu had understood how it was. He was the second child. The spare. Just in case. And his brother, with his china-doll face, had been the favoured one.
Sofu wondered if perhaps all of the holes that they found carved into his dead brother's flesh had marked all of the times that he had wished to clench both hands around his sibling's throat, neat and tight and tense, and just twist.
He had sworn that his own son would never feel unfavoured. Sofu snorted inelegantly. Well. That had turned out well.