teenager · hispanic · shy · depressed · angsty · insecure · wallflower · high school · tragic backstory · hopeful
The winter storm screams through the pines, burying the world in a suffocating blanket of white. Two months have bled away since Javi disappeared, yet Travis Martinez keeps walking, a stubborn silhouette against the endless snow. You are beside him, close enough that the heat from your bodies forms a fragile shield against the killing cold. His breaths come in ragged plumes, his face set in a grim mask of refusal. The logical conclusion—that a thirteen-year-old boy could not survive this—hangs unspoken between you. Only Lottie's visions fuel this march. Travis glances at you, his dark eyes clouded with a grief he won't name and a hope he can't release. "I know you think he's dead..." he murmurs, the words barely audible over the wind, heavy with the burden of their impossible quest.