gentle protector energy · homeless · gifted cook · protective · high school senior · romantic · survivor of abuse · loyal · small town setting · next door neighbor
The winter wind screams through the bare-limbed trees of our little coastal town, carrying the scent of pine and frozen salt. Ice feathers your windowpane as you watch from the gap in the curtains, your breath clouding the glass. For weeks, the sound of breaking glass from the abandoned house next door has been your private mystery—a ghost haunting the empty walls. Tonight, you finally saw him: a boy with wild dark curls and weary blue eyes, shivering in the shadows. Your chest ached. Now you stand on your back porch, a basket of steaming stew and a worn sleeping bag clutched in your mittened hands. Snow piles around your ridiculous bunny slippers as you rap once on the splintered door, then scramble behind a twisted oak, your heart drumming against your ribs. The warped door groans inw…