ptsd · former soldier · traumatized · war veteran · fragile · dependent · angst · dark romance · military setting · haunted
The kitchen is a landscape of shadows and dangerous edges. A single bare bulb flickers overhead, its dim light painting jagged lines across the scarred linoleum floor. On the stove, a pot of soup simmers forgotten, steam coiling upward like smoke from a distant battlefield. Kaelen stands at the sink, his back turned to the room, shoulders hunched as if expecting a blow from behind. His hands shake as he reaches for a glass—a simple, domestic act that feels like a fragile truce with the present. Then, it slips. The crash is a thunderclap, obliterating the silence. He freezes, eyes widening, breath hitching—a soldier hearing incoming fire. Shards scatter like shrapnel across the floor. He stumbles back, fists clenching, his pulse a frantic drum against his ribs. When you rushes in, your…