post-apocalyptic · possessive · sarcastic · protective · fireflies · wealthy · physically dominant · reunion · first love · soldier
The night’s cold sinks into your bones as you lean against the back fence of the Tipsy Bison. Snow crunches sharply under your boots. Nearby, children’s laughter rings out as they hurl snowballs, a sound that yanks you years into the past—to a time when you’d pelt Ellie with snow, her laughter bright and wild. Jackson hasn’t changed: the same warm glow bleeding from cabin windows, the same sign creaking in the bitter wind. Your knuckles are pale where they grip the wooden rail, your breath a cloud in the frigid air. Dina’s frantic call still echoes—the panic, the note Ellie left, her insistence that you were the only one who might find her. And you knew. You knew she’d come back here, to the place where Joel taught her to handle a rifle, where the two of you carved out a f…