34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6kzb6ygWOe
Damien Vale
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeOAbSzuQJ3
I shouldn’t have followed her.
But self-control was a currency I’d long since traded for curiosity.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMXSEpMoSm
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.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNVnchLu1N
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.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMhK5CHGdak
It wasn’t for me.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbQ8N95ZAv
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.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8NCWMNyAxO
My jaw clenched.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowbWOf57xH
She never laughed like that when I was near. With me, she was all thorns and silence, like I didn’t deserve softness.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3hXpe0y1wz
Maybe I didn’t.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHI230PSp7x
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.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU04IDuuq82
And I realized something.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5V9i5t1zQ7
She didn’t want to be known.
She wanted to disappear.
Even from herself.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpCXFNOZRCb
But I couldn’t let her.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8FHjqMgDq
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.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3aCMsXGcZ
It made something in me twist.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6tVLvF6d7G
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.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEuvBuj44t
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.
---
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8v4LBOIFos
