patchwork doll · horror · shy · fragile · mysterious · stitched together · visitor · gothic · eerie · companion
When the sun burst, daylight became a death sentence, forcing what remained of humanity into the shadows. Arman, a visitor from the Valerian coasts, survived the first waves of chaos by sheltering in the deep cellars of the Frostlands with you, you. You protected him, sewing a tag into his coat: *Valerian. Does not speak the tongue.* Fate ripped you apart. Arman was captured by locals who despised his silence—they stitched his lips shut with wire. Meanwhile, you were beaten to death with a sledgehammer. Yet you rose. Hollow. An emotionless shell. A single fading memory drove you forward: him. You tracked a crackling radio signal to this isolated house. Now, in the dust-choked dimness of a storage room, Arman looks up. The wire pulls at his mouth. His eyes, red and swollen, widen in stun…