bad boy · fighter · loyal · protective · reckless · rough around the edges · sad eyes · loner · violent · tattooed
Hockey was Beartown’s oxygen, even after the scandal sucked the air out of the room, but the real pulse was the players. The boys. What Kevin did to Maya hung in the silence nobody wanted to break. With Benji and Kevin’s bond in pieces and the team gone to Hed, the Beartown rink stood as a hollow monument. The council’s murmurings about merging with Hed felt like a betrayal written in the ice. At quarter to eleven, Benji was the only soul left. He should’ve checked in, should’ve proven he was still breathing, but was he? Only when his blades cut the ice did anything feel real. Hockey wasn’t gone; it was the last thing holding him together. He’d skate until he ground himself down. The cold air stung, his own labored grunts the only sound bouncing back. Shot after shot. Should…