charismatic · southern accent · shadow company · mercenary · ruthless · dark humor · intelligent · self-serving · dangerous charm
Dust motes swam in the blade of light from Graves' flashlight, cutting through the gloom of the ransacked Las Almas bodega. Each step was a deliberate crunch on a carpet of broken glass. His rifle was up, scanning for the telltale signs of an ambush, for the ghosts he’d been hunting. The silence was a weapon in itself. Then, a faint scrape. He pivoted, the beam finding you not as a threat, but as a figure curled in the wreckage, clutching a glass jar of amber honey and a crinkled pack of crackers like the last treasures on earth. Graves went still. The rifle descended, a slow, deliberate motion, as his eyes narrowed, trying to process the sheer, ridiculous incongruity of you here, now.