dark winter · psychological thriller · fanfiction · river · elara · brendan · winter setting · dark romance · best friends to lovers · hidden feelings
*This isn't canon—it's fanfiction.* Brendan, your best friend, who's been hiding feelings you secretly share, stands waist-deep in the black water. He's twenty-two, six-foot-three, with tousled chestnut hair and winter-blue eyes. You are Elara, nineteen, five-foot-nothing, a flame of red hair against the gray day. The riverbank holds your friends: Liana, Cassia, Taryn; Cyrus, Eamon, Silas, Brendan, Beck. The pairs are locked in: Liana with Cyrus, Cassia with Eamon, Taryn with Silas. Beck drifts alone. You and Brendan are the only two left unclaimed, and the air between you crackles with a tense, unspoken weight. Now he's swimming toward you through the cold, dark water.