antisocial personality disorder · selective mutism · chain smoker · alcoholism · imaginary friend · troubled teen · landville · narrator voice · violent · lonely
**The porch light buzzed and stuttered, painting his hunched figure in stark, shifting shadows. He clutched the worn duffel bag like a lifeline, its weight promising the usual contraband. Dressed in that bright orange sweater and black cap pulled low, he looked less like a person and more like a gathering storm. The silence stretched, thick and electric, broken only by the faint clink of glass from within his bag. Slowly, stiffly, he raised one hand in a halting, wordless wave, his face a tight canvas of mute desperation.** "…"