Damian
Rain had a sound.But she made it go silent.
Damian Blackwood stood beneath the awning of the old clock tower, the city lights flickering off the wet stone around him. People rushed past—shadows with umbrellas and places to be—but he wasn't watching any of them.
He was watching her.
He didn't know her name yet.But the moment the bus door hissed open and she stepped onto the slick pavement, something in him… shifted. A quiet, sharp click, like a lock turning for the first time.
She moved cautiously, one hand gripping the handle of a worn suitcase, her shoulders curled inward as though bracing against the world. She didn't try to draw attention. She tried to disappear. That alone was enough to make Damian look closer.
The girl wasn't from here.He always knew.
She had that searching look—soft, frightened, determined to blend into a place that did not want to be blended into.
Her clothes were plain.Her hair damp from the drizzle.Her boots scuffed.
But nothing about her looked ordinary to him.
Her eyes… God, those eyes. Big, bright, far too expressive for someone wandering this part of the city alone. In another life, she could've belonged in a warm, safe place. Someone's home. Someone's protection.
But this was his city.And the way she trembled slightly—only visible to someone who stared long enough—told him something important:
She didn't have a protector.Not anymore.
Damian slid his hands into his coat pockets, observing her without blinking. She tugged her coat closer, glancing over her shoulder as if expecting a ghost to materialize behind her.
Not a ghost.A threat.
He recognized that look too well.He had seen it in runaways, in people who had lost more than they could speak of.
But on her… it did something to him.A pull he couldn't ignore.
Damian rarely felt anything.not fear,not regret.not even desire—not the kind people wasted time chasing.
But this—this unfamiliar tug in his chest—was sharper, hungrier, possessive in a way that made his jaw tighten.
She crossed the street, boots splashing in a small puddle, and he followed silently, keeping a distance. Not enough for her to notice. Just enough to observe.
Her phone was cracked.Her backpack looked like it had been packed in a hurry.She flinched whenever a car passed too close.
Small details,none of them escaped him.
When she paused under a flickering streetlight, biting her lip nervously, Damian finally moved closer—silent, calculated, predatory. She didn't hear him. Didn't sense him. She was too preoccupied by her fear.
Then someone else stepped onto the sidewalk.
A man,tall, hood up, walking too slowly, eyes locked on her like she was an opportunity.
Damian's entire body went cold in the way it did right before he destroyed something.
He leaned forward slightly, his voice low:"Don't."
The man froze mid-step, as if a force had seized him rather than a whispered warning. He didn't even turn. No one ever turned when Damian sounded like that.
He walked away—quickly—head down.
Damian didn't even reward him with a glance.
His focus returned to the girl. She shivered, oblivious to the danger she'd nearly walked into, oblivious to the danger watching her now. She lifted her suitcase again, heading toward an old residential building at the corner.
A rented room,temporary,cheap.
He exhaled once.
Not good enough for her.
Damian wasn't sure yet why he cared but he knew one thing with certainty:
He would find out who she was and why she had that haunted look in her eyes.
Because the moment he saw her—
she became something he wasn't willing to lose.
Ava
Her hands were shaking again.
Ava tried to hide them in her coat pockets as she hurried down the narrow street, the cold night air turning her breaths into faint white clouds. Her heart was beating too fast, too loud, as though afraid someone else might hear it.
She hated feeling this way—this constant edge of panic. But she couldn't help it. Not after everything that happened not after she left everything behind.
She checked over her shoulder.
Nothing.
Just an empty street, rain dripping from loosely hanging wires, and the dim light of the bus stop fading behind her.
Still, her stomach twisted with unease.
She couldn't afford to be caught again.
The city streets smelled like wet asphalt and cheap food, and even though it was late, voices drifted from nearby alleys—laughter, arguments, drunken songs. Ava hugged her arms to her chest and walked faster.
Her suitcase wobbled behind her, one wheel squeaking,she winced.
Quiet. Just stay quiet.The last thing she needed was to draw attention.
But she felt it anyway—the prickling sensation at the back of her neck. The heavy, invisible awareness of being watched. She looked around again, forcing herself to stay calm, but her breath stuttered.
Just nerves.Just exhaustion.Just trauma that refuses to leave.
She whispered to herself, "It's fine, Ava. Just keep walking."
But something inside her insisted it wasn't fine.
She made it to the run-down residential building the landlord promised would be "private and affordable."He didn't mention "unsafe and unsettling."
Ava pushed open the rusted gate and struggled up the cracked steps. The key he gave her jingled in her pocket.
Her new life her new start.
Tiny, cold ,alone But at least it wasn't there.
Ava entered her room—a single bed, a small table, peeling wallpaper—and exhaled shakily.
It wasn't much.But it was hers.
She closed the curtains, triple-checked the lock, then leaned her forehead against the door.
She didn't cry not anymore, tears were dangerous they made noise they left traces but she let out a single, shaky breath of relief.
Here, no one knew her here she could disappear.
She didn't see the tall figure standing beneath the streetlamp outside,she didn't see the way he tilted his head, as if memorizing exactly which window belonged to her she didn't see the dark intensity in his eyes.
If she had looked out the window—if she had glanced even once—she would've seen the truth.
She wasn't alone at all.
Damian
He didn't move for a long time.
He stood at the edge of the sidewalk, hands in his coat pockets, staring at the window where her light flickered faintly behind the curtains.
She thought she had disappeared she thought no one saw her she thought this city could swallow her and make her unrecognizable.
But Damian recognized her.
Not her, name not her history, not her past.
But something older deeper,the moment she stepped off that bus, she became the one thread in the entire night he couldn't stop pulling.
He watched the light in her room dim.
He waited until she lay down.
He waited until the city finally quieted.
Then he stepped back into the shadows.
Not to leave.
Only to plan.
Because he knew what she didn't:
Danger had followed her here and he would not allow anyone—not the ghosts of her past,not strangers on the street,not fate itself—
to take her away.
Not after he had found her.
His devotion was already forming—slow, dark, inevitable.
It wasn't gentle, it wasn't sane,It wasn't safe.
It was vicious.
And she had no idea her life had already entwined with his.
But soon…she would.