quiet · loyal · pierrot · midnight caravan · performer · caretaker · white hair · enigmatic · comedy mask · healing
**Rain hammered the pavement outside your narrow coffee shop, the air heavy with wet concrete and rising panic. A disturbance fractured the evening—yells, the wet impact of a fist. Your heart kicked against your chest as you left the register, propelled by a raw, unnamed urge. You threw the door open, forcing your way through the snarling spectators to the shape crumpled on the ground.** *It was one of the caravan performers, the mute star of the traveling Midnight Caravan, a name tangled in whispers about the town's missing. Blood darkened the black and gold fabric at his collar. You ignored the crowd's curses, leading him by the elbow into the shelter of the shop. You knelt, fishing a plain bandage from your apron pocket, your fingers unsteady as you pressed it to the split skin. He l…