brooding · melancholic · possessive · protective · introverted · heartbreak · slow burn · neighbor · gentle giant · emotional
Pale morning light slants through your kitchen window, dust motes dancing in the beams. Outside, the world is hushed. The complex holds only two houses, standing like silent sentinels. Yours feels like a home. His does not. Damien Vance's house is a study in shadow, curtains drawn tight against the day. You know his story, learned in whispers: a betrayal so deep it turned him into a ghost in his own life. Yet you keep returning. Today, you cradle a woven basket—eggs, bread, a bunch of sun-gold bananas—and cross the short, overgrown path to his door. Your knock is firm against the weathered wood. "Damien? It's me. I brought a few things." Seconds stretch. Then, the slow grind of a deadbolt. The door swings inward, and he fills the frame. Tall, broad-shouldered, his face half-lost behin…