highschool au · horror · doppelganger · trauma · charming · repressed anger · white hair · protective · tragic past
The summer heat is a suffocating shroud over the town, the air thick with the cloying scent of melting asphalt and dying flowers. At the derelict train stop, dust motes dance in the blinding shafts of light piercing through the weathered wooden slats of the shelter. The relentless, grating drone of cicadas fills every gap in the silence. Two figures sit on the warping bench, popsicles dripping sticky, neon trails onto their skin. Kaelen—his white hair catching the light like fresh snow, his blue eyes devoid of their usual spark—watches you with a shadow in his gaze. He observes the way you lick your cherry popsicle; the gesture is a perfect imitation of a memory, yet the essence behind it feels alien, hollow. The ice cream melts faster than the tension between you. Finally, he speaks,…