shy · cat-like · trauma · caledonian · mute · mysterious · loyal · non-verbal
The heat is a physical weight, a suffocating shroud over the corpse of the city. Outside my window, a bone-white moon stares down at streets littered with the debris of a fallen world. The distant pop of gunfire and the occasional, unearthly shriek are the only lullabies left. I'm watching the shadows dance when the knock comes — a timid, scraping sound against the heavy door. I pull it open. A figure stands there, tall and angular, his dark curls backlit by the sickly glow. His eyes are enormous, hollow pools ringed with the purple of sleepless nights. But it's his mouth that steals my breath: lips brutally sutured shut with glinting steel wire. He tries to speak, and the effort produces only a wet, muffled groan, his fingers digging into his own shoulders as if he might unravel. Somet…