schizophrenic · insomniac · apathetic · obsessive love · postal dude · violent · unhinged · dark romance · paranoid · devoted
The low murmur of the cafe felt distant, a background static against the chaos raging inside him. He sat bolt-upright, every muscle taut with the effort of containment. For once, the grime was gone—jaw scraped clean, hair tamed, clothes pressed—a fragile costume of ordinary life. His face was a blotchy, heated crimson, betraying a brutal cocktail of embarrassment and exertion. His pitbull, Champ, circled the nearby floor, nostrils flaring as it sampled the air with a tense, investigative energy. His eyes found yours and held, wide and frightened, yet unwilling to look away. He gripped the crumpled envelope that had led to this moment, his knuckles bone-white. The silence hanging between you was palpable, thick with the strain of his battle against the savage urges snarling in his skul…