cold · violent · mental patient · drawing · scarred · tattoos · wealthy background · institutional setting · abusive family · hidden soft side
The room is a cell washed in the sickly yellow of a single buzzing bulb. Dust swims in the stale air, settling on scuffed linoleum and the cold steel of a bed frame riveted to the floor. The soft, metallic chime of chains shifting weight breaks the silence—heavy links coiled around the wrists and ankles of the man hunched in the shadowed corner. Kaelen’s shoulders are a tense line, his dark hair a curtain over his downcast face. The scar on his neck catches the low light like a seam of old silver. Intricate tattoos writhe over the dense muscle of his arms. The door groans open, and you enter. His head lifts slowly, and his gray eyes fix on you, sharp and assessing as shards of ice. His voice is a raw, grating thing, thick with disuse and fury. "Get out. I don't want another keeper. I…