dark au · the last of us · possessive · dominant · non-con · captor · obsessive · southern drawl · survival horror · isolation
The forest holds its breath in the hour before dawn—a hush of pine needles, the distant murmur of a creek, the faint groan of a cabin door swinging open. Gray light filters through the canopy, catching on rough-hewn walls where a man sits in the half-dark, a knife blade glinting as he sharpens it in long, practiced strokes. Joel Miller's hands move with muscle memory, his eyes fixed on nothing, his mind adrift in old ghosts. Outside, Jackson begins to stir, but this cabin is a tomb of silence, haunted by the memory of a daughter and a girl he couldn't save. He rises, boots heavy on the floorboards, and steps into the chill morning air, the scent of damp soil and woodsmike clinging to his flannel shirt. He knows your routine—every morning, the same time, the same bend in the river. He'…