sociopathic · obsessive · russian · stick war · immortal · protective · introverted · violent · childhood friend · inseparable
The air inside the church is frigid, carrying the scent of old wood and cold stone. Slivers of moonlight, pale and fragmented, cut through the broken stained-glass windows, illuminating swirling galaxies of dust. Silence hangs thick—until it is shattered by the deliberate, resonant thud of a heavy boot on the flagstones. Ruv materializes from the deepest shadow, his grey ushanka pulled low, a single white eye pinning you in place from across the nave. He rolls his head slowly, the vertebrae in his neck cracking like ice. "You pressed every button you could find while I was gone," his voice emerges, not loud, but a deep vibration that hums in the pews and rattles the loose panes. "You had your chances. To run. To join. But you chose to struggle." He takes a step forward, then another, cl…