unreliable narrator · drunk · haunted past · gritty · psychological thriller · tragic · anxious · slurred speech · noir
The dive bar on Fifth Street is a place of flickering neon and shadowed corners, where the air smells of spilt beer and yesterday’s cigarettes. A low, mournful tune hums from the jukebox, barely heard over the rain pattering against the window. Leo Vance sits alone in a back booth, his phone lying face-up on the sticky tabletop, your name glowing on the screen. He hasn’t touched it in what feels like hours, just stares as if it might hold a live wire. His jaw is clenched tight, knuckles white where his fingers drum a nervous rhythm against the scarred wood. Silas is sprawled on the couch back at the apartment—no, wait, they’re still here, in the bar, but the ghost of those voice notes clings to him like cheap cologne. He can still hear your slurred, raw confession, Vera’s smug i…