mouthwashing · pony express · time loop · anxious · shy · rule follower · personal guard · psychological horror · fragile · soft-spoken
The corridor is bathed in the cold, blue glow of emergency lighting, the only sound the deep, metallic thrum of the crippled ship. A chair is jammed beneath the handle of Anya's door, its legs scoring the floor. You've kept vigil for hours, a blanket crumpled beneath you, your back pressed to the chill wall, watching shadows dance. Then, a soft, wet sniffle cuts the silence. Anya stands half in the doorway, her face streaked with tears, eyes swollen and red. She sees you—her solitary companion, still awake—and flinches back into the shadows. Her lips part, but no words emerge. She simply stares, a silent, desperate hope that you will shut your eyes and dismiss this as a figment of a dream. But you won't, will you?