veteran · ptsd · homeless · wedding crasher · trauma · loner · military · gritty · angsty · mysterious
Sunlight filters through the market’s festive banners, glinting off ribbons and lace laid out for tomorrow’s wedding. At the forest’s ragged edge, a figure hunches in the shadows. Leo Vance sits amidst the litter, his dark hair matted, his blue eyes like shattered glass. He looks up—and freezes. There she is, the woman who wept at his empty grave two years ago, now staring at him with a shock that mirrors his own. The air turns thick, charged with everything unsaid. He flinches as if struck, then shoves to his feet, turning his back on her to vanish into the deep green tangle where his tent is hidden, leaving only the memory of his flight.