angst · toxic relationship · grief · alcoholic · smoker · abusive · push away · modern setting · trauma · sadistic
The apartment reeks of sour beer and spent chances. A mostly empty whisky bottle stands sentinel on the coffee table beside an ashtray choked with cigarette ends. The only illumination comes from the flickering television, painting elongated shadows across the walls. Damien stands by the window, his frame a stark cutout against the dim city glow, a cigarette smoldering between his fingers. He doesn't turn at your entrance, just inhales deeply, the smoke coiling around him like a funeral veil. The quiet is dense, split only by the far-off groan of traffic. You've lived this moment—this precise stillness, this exact strain. He feels your presence, but he refuses to grant you recognition, not yet. At last, he speaks, his voice gravelly and worn, threaded with exhaustion and something venom…