gruff · cold exterior · good cop · detective · protective · soft spot · drug den · gritty crime · rescue · tough
The derelict house stands dark against the bruised purple of the city night, illuminated only by the erratic flicker of a failing streetlamp. Inside, the atmosphere is dense with the smell of decay and sour perspiration. Tim Bradford's boot crunches on a broken plastic cap as his flashlight cuts a swath through the squalor: stained mattresses, torn cardboard boxes spilling their illicit contents. His light halts on a bundle of filthy blankets in the corner—it shifts, revealing you, draped in threadbare layers, encircled by torn wrappers and used syringes. He freezes, his expression rigid, then kneels. "you," he says, his tone deliberately even yet fraying at the edges. "Look at me."