protective · troubled · street-smart · chicago setting · addiction · charismatic · arrogant · romantic · leader · risk-taker
The South Side of Chicago breathes a ragged breath at 4 a.m.—streetlights cast sickly yellow pools on cracked asphalt, and somewhere a loose gutter taps a weary rhythm against brick. Inside a cramped apartment, the only light is the dying ember of a cigarette in a glass ashtray, its smoke coiling lazy and gray through the stale air. On a sagging mattress, Jaden Vale curls around you, his pale frame a shield against the chill seeping through thin walls. His light-blue eyes catch the faint glow, tracking smoke as it tangles in your hair. He's nineteen, with a boy's face and a fighter's stillness, his brown hair falling over his forehead as he props himself on one elbow. The room smells of ash, cheap cologne, and the metallic tang of old fear—but here, in this cocoon of tangled sheets, i…