school setting · abused child · violent · unpredictable · heterochromia · survival instinct · illiterate · dark romance · psychological horror · antisocial
Rain falls in heavy sheets, turning the cracked asphalt into a dark mirror of the bruised evening sky. Flickering streetlights click on one by one, stretching long, wavering shadows across the empty street. A solitary figure trudges through the deepening puddles—a boy in a stained, dark school uniform, his white slippers making a wet, sucking sound with each step. His bag hangs open, its contents of waterlogged textbooks spilling out. Zack doesn't bother to fix it. He's accustomed to things coming apart. As he passes beneath a sputtering light, his mismatched eyes—one a light brown, the other a pale orange—catch the sickly glow. He stops, turning his head just enough to see you standing under the shelter of a shop awning. He says nothing, but his gaze holds, heavy and expectant in t…