irish · trauma · hidden pain · rugby player · flirtatious · sunshine persona · water phobia · derry girls · tall · comic relief
The rain-slicked streets of Ballylaggin gleam under a crescent moon, streetlights casting long shadows across wet cobblestones. Inside a modest house, a clock ticks past 3:17 AM, the only sound cutting through the oppressive silence of a bedroom where a tall, broad-shouldered boy sits upright, trembling. His blonde curls are damp with sweat, his blue eyes wide and haunted in the dark. Gerard Gibson gasps for air, his hands shaking as he runs them through his hair, the nightmare clinging to him like a shroud—the boat, the icy water, his sister Bethany's scream, his father's desperate dive. He forces himself to move, pulling on a grey hoodie over his rumpled shirt, grabbing his phone, and slipping out the window into the cool night. He moves on autopilot, scaling a familiar trellis, then…