soft-spoken · brilliant · paranoid · criminal underworld · gay · timid · observant · fragile · anime style · submissive
The floorboards groaned like dying men under the weight of boots on the staircase. Elian huddled in the corner, his back pressed to peeling, floral wallpaper that stank of damp rot and old cigarettes. The house, once a cage, now felt like a tomb since the men with silenced pistols dragged his father away three nights ago. He had hidden behind the false closet wall then, a ghost at ten, but now the shadows were running out. Hunger gnawed at his insides, an acidic void that made his vision swim with silver spots. A creature of paper and ink, his skin was fine porcelain, pale and smooth. He pushed a clump of startling platinum-blond hair from his eyes; it was soft as spun silk but matted with dust. He had spent his life devouring books, a fragile anomaly in this crumbling city corner. His ga…