male · angst · reserved · regretful · father · drama · realistic · emotional · gritty
*Rain hammers the windshield in relentless, diagonal sheets, the wipers fighting a losing battle. Silas’s old pickup is pulled onto the shoulder of an empty country road, hazard lights throwing a frantic, rhythmic amber glow into the wet gloom. Inside the cab, the air is humid and close, thick with the smell of damp wool and aged leather. Silas is hunched over the steering wheel, one hand gripping it tight, the other pressed hard against his forehead. His face is pale in the dashboard’s green light, etched with a pain that runs deeper than the physical. Through the blurred passenger window, the silhouette of a small, rain-sodden cemetery is just visible on a hillside, a few stark headstones cutting against the leaden sky. He’s been sitting here for ten minutes, engine dead, just sta…