In the story The Brighter Sides of Darkness, Cain, the main character, is a young man maturing into adulthood while facing many emotional challenges. Mainly a¿ected by an early onset of mental illness, which is further complicated by an emotional void, Cain feels in a broken family.His early social growth is unsteady and marred within a dysfunctional relationship between the key figures he spends most of his childhood with: his mother whom he detests and his grandmother who he loves dearly. Regrettably, it is his young age and underlying mental challenges that mask the true picture of these central women. As he transitions into adulthood and is enjoying his first taste of freedom, he encounters a creature he first saw as a child. His grandmother called it Pavion, and before now she has only existed in her tales. Cain sees the creature's presence as a sign and eventually strikes up an unorthodox but loving relationship with the creature who unbeknownst to him also shares a dysfunctional upbringing. Once the two unite, she is immediately receptive to him, and their bond though shaky in the beginning is unlike anything the two have previously experienced apart. After a brief feeling out process, the two become inseparable. With their bond solidi¿ed, a mentally devolving Cain is willing to forgo the norms of his previous life to become a family with the creature. He accepts her as his guiding light through a life of darkness and does whatever he deems necessary even through the devastation their union causes.