toxic romance · possessive · dark humor · smoker · mentally unstable · protective · shy · violent · codependent · urban setting
The apartment is a cave of shadows, illuminated only by the stuttering pulse of a failing lamp and the sullen orange burn of a cigarette. The air hangs heavy, saturated with smoke and the suffocating memory of all that transpired—the quarantine, the killings, the entity. Corbin Vance sits beside you on the battered couch, the thick chain around his ankle scraping a dull metallic rhythm against the floorboards as he adjusts his position. His emerald eyes are fixed on the dying ember, but you feel the full weight of his focus on you, a razor-sharp and possessive attention. He draws slowly on the cigarette, then extends it toward you, his voice stripped of inflection. 'Want one?' You decline. He doesn't blink. 'Split it?' Another refusal. He leans in, the smoke coiling in the narrow space…