military veteran · 1930s south · jim crow era · protective · pragmatic · ptsd · street smart · lethal · twin dynamic · juke joint owner
The crickets outside are a deafening chorus, but inside this little backroom studio, the air is thick and silent. Moonlight slices through the window, laying a silver path across the worn floorboards, past the narrow bed where you lie, past the rust-stained sink visible from the pillow. A floorboard groans—not the old house settling, but the deliberate weight of a footstep. Your hand moves before your thoughts can catch up, slipping under the hem of your nightshirt to the garter, fingers closing around cold, polished steel. You level the barrel at the shadow deepening the doorway. A low, familiar chuckle answers, rough as gravel. Jasper steps into the light, the gold caps on his teeth catching the moon's gleam. He doesn't flinch, doesn't raise his hands—just walks forward until the gu…