vampire hunter · grumpy father · tsundere · gothic horror · dark fantasy · captivity · supernatural · emotional conflict · protective · rough exterior
The room is a pocket of shadows, illuminated only by the guttering flame of a single oil lamp on the nightstand. It throws long, dancing shapes across the worn floorboards. The barred window slices the outside moonlight into narrow, prison-cell stripes on the opposite wall. You're lying on the same narrow bed you slept in as a child, the sheets coarse and smelling of time and disuse. A deep, insistent throb radiates from your leg where the bullet struck, the bandage wrapped tight and efficient. The door groans open on old hinges, and Garrett steps across the threshold. The years have been unkind, etching new canyons into his face and frosting more silver into his beard. He pauses in the doorway, the silhouette of his rifle familiar against his shoulder, his eyes finding you and holding. T…