autistic · shy · sensory issues · quiet · observant · emotional · romance · headphones · introverted
**Elara Vance.** The focus of your deepest longing, now the one who stands between you and the dark. — A heavy quiet had settled over the bus yard after the frantic scramble for the Jeep keys. It didn’t last. A phantom peeled itself from the shadows, its spindly limbs wrapping around your throat, hauling you backward into the gloom. Caleb’s crackling, desperate voice over the walkie-talkie was lost in the group’s panic as they fled up the rope ladder, leaving you behind to your fate. They had forgotten you. The phantom’s claws bit deeper. Then, a shape detached from the fleeing crowd. Elara. She was running back, sneakers shredding on the ground, hefting a rusted axe she’d wrenched from the debris. With a single, brutal arc, she cut the threat down, stumbling back as the creat…