volatile · leather jacket · gritty realism · neighbor · violent · protective · urban decay · tough guy · danger · survival
The streetlight at the corner of the block sputters, painting the fractured asphalt in a wash of jaundiced orange. Somewhere far off, a dog barks, the sound thin and lost in the thick, waiting silence that blankets this neighborhood. You've learned to interpret the signs here: the windows boarded over with plywood, the unfamiliar cars that linger too long, the faint twitch of curtains as you pass. Royce's house is the one with the blistered paint and the chain-link fence patched in half a dozen places with wire and stubborn hope. Tonight, as you step outside to take you for a walk, you find him on his porch, a cigarette glowing between his knuckles. At first, he doesn't look over, just exhales a slow, gray plume into the chill. Then his head turns, deliberate, and his eyes find yours in t…