The next morning, the town mourned.
Candles flickered outside the chapel ruins. Townspeople stood in tight circles, whispering about the fire. About the traveler who died trying to escape. About how no one ever leaves Pacifica Shores without a price.
He watched them from the edge of the woods — soaked in rain, smoke-stung eyes wide open, heart ice-cold.
His name had already been spoken in past tense.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR52ABkyiNw
His dreams buried under ashes.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3HzHW7P2SE
His love... nowhere to be found.
And then he saw her.
Panna.
Standing next to her father, dry and clean and untouched by smoke. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t broken. She was... radiant.
The mayor held her hand tightly as he gave his speech.
“My daughter was lucky to survive. Some are not so fortunate. But we will not tolerate lawlessness, nor betrayal. Pacifica Shores protects its own.”
The crowd nodded. Applauded.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtjGaWOUcm
And Panna… she smiled.
That was the moment his heart snapped in two.
She wasn’t forced. She wasn’t crying.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1jza6eutng
She had chosen this.
Chose to let him die.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswlxFhG3pM
Chose to stay.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq0G3YYd9V8
Chose her father.
🩸 The Truth Cut Deeper Than Fire
Days passed.
He stayed in hiding — feeding off scraps, listening to whispers in taverns and alleyways.
Stories trickled in.
“They say the mayor found her trying to run and dragged her back himself.”42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGF4vrbuS3B
“No one crosses the Willowbrooks and lives to tell the tale.”42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ELiLnZUPX
“He made her watch as the chapel burned.”
But then… another rumor.
The mayor had died.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe5QmqpdxB0
Poisoned. No suspects.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPVs1becvgU
No witnesses.
Some said it was old age.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16g9AwO7oQ
Some said karma.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0pVPQz1GuO
But he knew better.
He returned that night to the graveyard on the hill. And that’s where he saw her again — dressed in black, standing alone at her father’s grave.
No tears. Just silence.
And a faint smirk.
🖤 The Split
He wanted to believe she was innocent.
That she was manipulated.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe18UlnXRHz
Threatened.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlG8HmrE53
Trapped.
But the look in her eyes said otherwise.
She had become something else — someone else. Cold. Ruthless. In control. No longer the girl who hummed lullabies in secret places. No longer the girl who once said “Let’s run away.”
She was Pacifica Shores now.
🗡️ His Last Goodbye
He left a note at her door that night.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ33Gtb6nUfS
No name. No threats.
Just four words.
“I saw the fire.”
Then he vanished.
Not because he was afraid.
But because revenge needed time.
He spent the next few years planning, gathering what he needed — names, weapons, truths buried beneath lies.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnDtWwLJUuc
Waiting for the perfect moment.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpRDRIfz7l
The perfect return.
✨ Present Day Tie-In
And now, here he stood — older, colder, still carrying the ghost of that rain-soaked night. Facing the girl who smiled while he burned.
She didn’t know the full truth.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ69g3qdOPRh
Not yet.
That the body in the church wasn’t his.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcmEzInx4Ih
That someone else died wearing his coat.42Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlK38b2oigj
That he had watched her smile beside the man who killed his mother.
And she was about to learn the cost.
Because no one leaves Pacifica Shores.
But someone always pays.
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