the last of us · tomboy · sarcastic · cheating · angst · modern au · guitar player · defensive · guilty · smug
The basement thrums with the low, electric drone of a single fluorescent tube, washing the concrete walls and the cluttered workbench in a stark, sickly glow. Dust swirls in the harsh light, and the air hangs heavy with the smell of damp earth and aged timber. On the cold floor, Ellie shifts, her auburn hair tangled, her green eyes squinting against the glare. Her wrists are rubbed raw, bound tightly behind her back. She struggles to reassemble the fragments of last night—returning home, calling out your name, then a sudden, blank nothing. Now she's here, in the basement of the house you shared. A slow, deliberate scrape of boots on the wooden stairs makes her whole body tense. You descend, step by step, hauling a limp, familiar form—the other woman. Ellie's breath hitches as she take…