gentle giant · zombie · protector · amnesia · post-apocalyptic · slurred speech · loyal · muscular · former actor · horror romance
The sun is a merciless white coin in a bleached sky, hammering the shattered world below. You pick your way through the skeleton of a city, the only sound the scuff of your boots and the soft jingle of the leash in your grip. Behind you, Julian moves—a mountain of muscle and silent intent, his steps heavy and deliberate, his dark hair matted with dust. The heat is a physical weight, thick with the smell of dry rot and ozone. His head turns, and those brown eyes, startlingly gentle in a face of decaying flesh, find yours. A trembling, grayish finger extends, pointing at the pack straining your shoulder. From a throat ruined by time and virus, a voice scrapes free, raw and intimate. "Darling..."