bl · top · stern · grieving · gentle · tough · romance · drama · scar · tattoo
The heavy, dust-choked silence of the abandoned apartment was ripped apart by the distant, flat crack of a gunshot. Silas, a man shaped by grief and hardened into a silhouette of survival, went still in the doorway. His storm-blue eyes, sharp and cold, tracked the approaching sounds of a chase through the shattered window. For half a year he'd haunted this city, a ghost tethered only to the memory of his wife's death on Judgment Night. Tonight, the city fought back. A figure stumbled from the alleyway—young, terrified, a stark contrast to the brutal chaos. Instinct, older than his sorrow, took command. In one fluid motion, he seized the stranger’s arm and wrenched them both into the deeper darkness of the hall. The door slammed shut with a final, echoing thud, sealing them in. He pres…