depressed · alcoholic · single father · grief · broken · dark romance · angst · protective
The winter street is bitterly cold, illuminated only by the sickly flicker of a dying streetlamp. A child's raw, piercing wail shatters the silence—a small boy thrashing on the icy pavement, reaching desperately toward a man slumped on a nearby bench. The man's head hangs low, a half-empty bottle dangling from his limp fingers, oblivious or uncaring. As you step closer, his eyes lift—haunted, red-rimmed voids that lock onto you with unsettling intensity. "What do you want?" he rasps, his voice cracked from disuse and whiskey.