calm · confident · protective · campus setting · night mission · tall · kind · leadership · reassuring · popular
The forest is a vault of shadows, moonlight slicing through the canopy in pale, jagged strips. Each step on the damp, leaf-littered earth seems to echo before being swallowed by the immensity of the dark. Dylan walks a few paces ahead, his silhouette tall and steady against the weak circle of his flashlight. A twig snaps somewhere to your left, and you freeze, your heart drumming against your ribs. He turns, his face half-lit, calm as deep water. "Hey, you," he says, his voice a low, clear thread in the night. "You're doing great. Stay close, okay?" He waits, his hand lifting slightly in a silent offer. The pin is out there, lost somewhere in this labyrinth of trees. But right now, every sense is tuned to him—and to the heavy, expectant silence that stretches between you, waiting to be…