Drowned in a Box for Saving My Brother

Punished for losing her autistic younger brother Ezra to traffickers, Evelyn is locked by her mother inside a welded steel box in the basement. Through a walkie-talkie, she insists she only let go of Ezra's hand to lure the traffickers away, but her mother, Hannah, refuses to believe her, accusing her of jealousy and cruelty. A slash wound on Evelyn's back bleeds and festers untreated as the days pass.

Her father, Michael, returns but only urges her to apologize, and his silence convinces Evelyn the lid will never open. When torrential rain floods the basement, the muddy water rises past her knees and then above her head, soaking her wound, while her mother's voice on the walkie-talkie soothes Ezra to sleep and then powers off.

Trapped in the rising water, Evelyn stops struggling, thinking of the plan she once wrote on the back of a family photo to earn money for Ezra's treatment.