KCU Pitchfest Showcase 2025 (Top 50)

Things Not Said

Diagnosed with PTSD, 14-year-old June hasn’t spoken since she moved here last year. Grandma, and the corner booth of her cozy diner, are a refuge from panic attacks, dissociation, and jeers about June’s criminal father. But June has a painful secret about her mom’s death, and she’s not the only one.

Grandma’s been forgetting things, sending cryptic letters that keep getting returned, and rambling about a fire and a stolen baby. June can’t shake the feeling something dark has been clawing its way through the generations–and there’s a ghost in the house.

When Grandma goes missing, June must dig into her family’s secrets–including her own–to find her, and discover: when our darkest secrets are brought to light, will we burn–or begin to heal?

My Why:

A neurodivergent person with CPTSD, I rooted this story in my own experiences with dissociation, verbal shutdowns, family secrets, and the struggle to come to terms with trauma, communicate about it, and connect with others.

Growing up as an abuse survivor, I felt alone, drowning in a vast ocean. Stories kept me afloat, but most I read didn’t reflect the internal landscape trauma had created in my mind–or that it might not have started with me.

A story I wish I’d had, Things Not Said is about what it feels like to grow up steeped in the guilt, shame, and fear of a family who refuses to (or simply cannot) acknowledge its own history, and the things we scream with our hearts—but don’t say out loud—that pass from one generation to the next.