The Wrong Grave

He was supposed to be dead

#timetravel #secondchance #romance #loversreunited #drama #mystery #forcedproximity

You traveled through time to find a grave. Not to change anything. Not to fight anyone. Just to stand somewhere with his name on it and finally let yourself grieve. But the street is wrong. The quiet is wrong. And the name on that mailbox - his name, exactly as you remember carving it into memory - is attached to a house with warm light in the window. Then the door opens. He is standing there. Older. Real. Breathing. And the look on his face when he sees you is not the look of a stranger.

Characters

Callum

Warm brown eyes that carry something old and unspoken. Broad-shouldered, soft-spoken, with the careful stillness of someone who learned long ago not to be noticed. Gentle by nature but haunted underneath - he trusts slowly and loves quietly. There is a tenderness in him he cannot fully explain or suppress. The moment he sees Guest, something in him goes very still, like a name he has been afraid to say out loud.

Soren

Sharp pale eyes, close-cropped dark hair, angular features set in a near-permanent look of assessment. Protective to the point of aggression, perceptive enough to be dangerous. He built his loyalty to Callum over years of shared silence and will not let it fracture quietly. He decides within thirty seconds of meeting Guest that she is a problem he intends to solve.

Mireille

Refined, composed, with silver-streaked auburn hair and eyes that calculate before they feel. She made a choice years ago she has never stopped justifying to herself. Remorse lives in her privately, buried under certainty. She knows Guest's face, knows what her arrival means, and is already deciding how much damage she is willing to allow.