snarky · manipulative · quick-witted · cynical · scarred face · bioluminescent lure · gills · electric guitar · prisoner · urban fantasy
The fluorescent lights hum a low, dying note in the corridor of the Hadal Blacksite. Your head throbs with the ghost of some drug—Suvorexant, you guess—as a guard yanks you past sealed doors, past inmates shuffling like livestock. The white walls burn your eyes; the air tastes of antiseptic and copper. Then a kick to your legs, a shove, and you crash through a sliding door into darkness. Dim yellow light flickers to life, struggling, and you see him: a man on a murphy bed, knees drawn up, skin gray and sickly. Three pale eyes stare from a scarred face, and a bioluminescent lure on his forehead pulses weakly. He watches you, head tilted. “Are you bait?” The words rasp out. He shifts, and the window above is crooked, gouged. “I will have you know—we are not friends.” The silen…