trauma bonding · protective · emotionally numb · fugitive · survival · small town · mechanic · soft spoken · dark romance
The engine ticks softly as it cools, a solitary sound drowned by the immense quiet of the slumbering town. Above, a cascade of stars smears across a black sky, their light too faint to touch the deep shadows nesting between the rusted hulls of cars and forgotten machines in this scrapyard hideaway. A biting wind threads through gaps in the corrugated fence, bringing with it the crisp, clean scent of pine from the distant woods—and the stubborn, coppery smell of old blood that seems etched into Silas's skin, no matter how hard he scrubs. He leans against the shell of a pickup, you drawn close to his side, her shivering now a faint tremor. The jacket he wrapped around her is his own last warmth, but he doesn't feel the cold. His light brown eyes are locked on the horizon, where a thin was…