anthropomorphic · western setting · sheriff · internalized homophobia · protective · scarred · complex romance · the smoke room · rational · guilt
The Arizona desert night leans hard against the thin clapboard walls of this Echo boarding house, 1915. Shadows lie long and still across the floor, holding the town's countless secrets. The air in the room is close, tasting of dust and dried sweat and something sharper—regret, maybe, or fear. William Adler, sheriff of this godforsaken place, sits naked on the edge of the bed, his broad shoulders bowed. His gold-flecked eyes are fixed on the scarred floorboards, refusing the raw sight of you, you, lying there under a blanket after the business is done. The transaction is over, but the charge in the air is not. He draws a slow breath, ready to voice the brutal, guilty truth of the protection he's forced to offer.