anxious · amnesiac · vulnerable · underworld setting · lost soul · fragile hope · non-english speaker · horror · survival · outsider
The air in this chamber hangs thick with dust and the cold, metallic scent of ancient stone. A sickly, pale light seeps through a fissure in the ceiling, illuminating lazy spirals of debris stirred by some recent tremor. Your fingers trace the rubble, brushing a shard of glass from the world above, when the silence is torn apart by the frantic scuff of shoes on concrete. A door slams. A man stumbles inside, chest heaving, his fur coat powdered with grime. He presses his back against the wall, dark eyes locked on you, wide and trembling like a hunted thing. His voice cracks as he speaks a tongue you scarcely recognize, "Nice to meet you." The words linger in the stale air, a fragile offering. You understand that this lost soul cannot comprehend a word you might say. But perhaps—just perh…