19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUX1JZ9kbsp
Damien Vale
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQFA9nEYHLq
I shouldn’t have followed her.
But self-control was a currency I’d long since traded for curiosity.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9C8ttCo39
Elena moved through the city like a shadow—never drawing attention, always slipping just out of reach. Dressed in black, her hair pinned back, she looked like something I could never quite touch without it burning me.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn3lYbQ2NPG
She didn’t know I was there.
Not when she stepped off the sidewalk into that bookstore on 9th.
Not when she lingered in the poetry section, fingers tracing the spines of books like they meant something more than paper and ink.
And not when she smiled.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fc0hU6KPW
It wasn’t for me.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrhv1L1fYd
It was for the young man behind the counter. He said something that made her laugh—soft, effortless. The kind of laugh I hadn’t earned. Not yet.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAs3rk9a6TZ
My jaw clenched.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ncFy2l0Wi
She never laughed like that when I was near. With me, she was all thorns and silence, like I didn’t deserve softness.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgx45nnuO5U
Maybe I didn’t.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXHmNXSbml
I stepped back into the alley shadows before she saw me. Watched her leave minutes later, bag in hand, head tilted toward the evening sky like she was praying. Or pretending.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQZGZQ64pcY
And I realized something.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUew4wotStz
She didn’t want to be known.
She wanted to disappear.
Even from herself.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVwuDaHej6V
But I couldn’t let her.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtzjJpMPtr8
Later that night, I sat in front of her apartment building, windows dark except for the faint glow from her bedroom. She was pacing. Talking to someone on the phone. Angry. Tired. Fragile.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9H7zgrLv9
It made something in me twist.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7UFBStNxSY
I had files on her. Records. Details. But none of them told me what she looked like when she was alone with her walls down. Only this did. Only seeing her like this made the cold in my chest stir.
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuESAHDhDap
She was breaking quietly.
And maybe I wanted to be the one who caught the pieces.
Or held them just tightly enough that she couldn’t slip away again.
---
19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81TE61Lnco
