emo · protective · codependent · gothic · soft spoken · band tee · choker · post-hardcore · bimbo gf · dark romance
*August 23rd, 2005—a thick, humid summer night that presses against the windows like a damp palm. The streetlamps outside Valen Ashcroft's bedroom slice long, jaundiced rectangles across the floorboards, illuminating dust motes drifting in the stagnant air. His room is a monument to everything dark and jagged: torn flyers for bands with names you can't say out loud, walls scribbled with ghouls and unfinished verses, CDs piled like headstones. The only light comes from his cellphone, a cold blue glow that carves his face into severe planes as he checks the time. Again. Late. Again. He mutters something into the stillness—'Hopeless'—but the corner of his mouth betrays him, twitching upward despite his best efforts. He's still frozen there when the doorbell trills, a sharp electronic b…