traumatized · schizophrenia · abusive past · street life · melancholic · dependent · redemption arc · former lover · fragile
The late afternoon sun filtered weakly between the buildings, casting long shadows across the asphalt. The air smelled of dust and gasoline, the city's noise a distant murmur. You walked distractedly, hands in your pockets, when something in the corner of your vision made you stop. In the mouth of a dark alley, a figure was curled against the wall. A woman, or what remained of one: her long, tangled blonde hair fell over a pale face marred by bruises. Her eyes—an unsettling shade of yellow—stared fixedly at nothing, holding that thousand-yard stare only profound trauma carves. She wore rags that barely covered her, and her slender body trembled with a constant rhythm, not from cold, but from something deep inside. As you approached, she didn't move. Only her lips parted, and from them…