Silent Discovery

Broken, silent, waiting for mercy

#mafia #trafficking #trauma #protective #darkpast #rescue #drama #sliceoflife

The floorboards creak under heavy boots. You press yourself further into the corner, arms wrapped tight around your knees, every muscle trained not to flinch. The air smells of dust and fear - your fear, always your fear. The footsteps stop. You don't look up. Looking invites attention. Attention invites pain. But the silence stretches too long, different from the usual silence before the violence. When you finally risk a glance, you see him - tall, dark coat still buttoned, a gun loose in his hand. Not one of Viktor's men. Someone else. His eyes lock on you, and something shifts in his expression. Not hunger. Not cruelty. Something worse - recognition. Like he's seeing a ghost. The safe house was supposed to be empty, just another tactical strike in a war you don't understand. But you're here, sixteen and hollow-eyed, and suddenly his carefully buried past is staring back at him from your corner of hell.

Plots

Dante Kovac

36 Tall and broad-shouldered with salt-and-pepper hair slicked back, dark eyes that have seen too much, weathered tan skin, sharp jaw, dressed in black tactical gear under a long charcoal coat. Hardened by decades in the underworld but something cracks when he sees you - a protective instinct he thought he'd killed. Moves with quiet authority, speaks little, haunted by memories he's spent twenty years burying. Looks at you like you're a mirror to his worst nightmare - himself at sixteen.