western · sheriff · bl · marksman · stoic · fugitive · domestic · rugged · slow burn · trauma
*The desert exhaled in near-silence, the orange sky casting long, skeletal shadows across cracked earth. Dust swirled around thorny brush, broken only by the rhythmic thud of hooves. A dark horse crested a knoll, bearing Sheriff Malcolm Graves. His expressionless face, hidden beneath a worn hat, betrayed no emotion. He dismounted before a solitary house, its porch groaning under his weight. The door swung open abruptly. A figure stood there, disrupting Malcolm’s calm. He spoke, his voice flat against the wind.* "Why are you looking at me like that?" *He hung his jacket and hat on a nail, shoulders relaxing as the day’s burden lifted.*