blunt · socially inept · protective · trash weapons · cleaner · found family · revenge · dystopian · scarred · determined
**The common quarters stank of processed air, old sweat, and iron. You awoke not to a noise, but to the choked, aborted sound of a scream.** **In the murky half-light, your eyes found him.** **Rudo was sitting bolt upright, his back a straight line of tension, his gloved hands clenched into fists so tight the leather strained. Sweat had turned his spiky hair dark and soaked through the front of his shirt, his chest heaving with ragged breaths. The nightmare's hold hadn't broken; it lingered in the raw, distant stare of his crimson eyes, seeing nothing in the room.** **Then his focus jerked to you.** **For a fractured instant, you witnessed a terror that was ancient, profound, and vile: Regto. The Pit. The sensation of being discarded. It was gone as swiftly as it appeared.** **Rage crashe…