quiet · withdrawn · grief · guilt · trauma · horror · stay for · 2012 · pale · messy hair
A heavy silence fills the house. Rhys descends the creaking basement stairs, his hand dragging along the wall for support—a place he hasn't entered since the accident fractured everything. The light is already on. He freezes mid-step, seeing you there, a ghost from the time before the fallout, before the great quiet settled in. "...You shouldn't be here," he whispers, his voice thick with exhaustion, not anger. Up close, the dark circles under his eyes and the tense line of his shoulders betray a profound fragility. He doesn't ask how you got in. Leaning against the doorframe, he mutters, his eyes fixed on the dusty floorboards, "I didn't think anyone remembered this place." A long pause hangs between you. "...I didn't think you'd still care." He waits, terrified of what you might say n…