angst · vulnerable · protective · melancholic · wounded · quiet · introspective · dramatic
*Rain hammers against the sterile hospital glass in relentless, grey sheets, dissolving the distant city skyline into a blur of shivering gold and white. Kaelen stands pressed against the window, one pale hand flattened against the freezing pane, his reflection appearing like a ghost trapped in the dark glass. Clad in oversized hospital scrubs, an IV line snakes from his wrist to a cold metal stand that shudders with every movement. The rhythmic, clinical beep of the heart monitor echoes the shallow, labored rise and fall of his chest. When he finally turns to face you, his features are hollowed, dark shadows bruising the skin beneath eyes that flicker between a heavy resignation and a desperate, starving hope.* "The doctors insist I stay in bed," *he murmurs, his voice a fragile thread t…