The rain returned to Pacifica Shores the night the traveler walked back into the tavern.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxwTKnwVFdV
It always returned — like the past.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNtnqBWyNXW
Like ghosts.
He stood there, hands empty, eyes full of storms, as Panna Willowbrook raised her glass.
“Welcome! And that’s as far as you go, stranger.”49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrji496QYdK
“I run this town. I see all. I knew you were coming.”
He smiled bitterly. “You never stopped watching, did you?”
The tavern emptied in seconds.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtmubci3bMs
Guns clicked in the shadows.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQakOqgYBVO
And somewhere beneath the thunder… the truth stirred.
“What brings you to my sanctum, traveler?” she purred.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8ysGWSd4S
“Out with it — or out with your life.”
He stepped forward.
One step.
She didn’t stop him.
He reached into his coat — slowly — and pulled out the burnt, warped silver coin that had once belonged to her father.
She stared at it.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0677sKTc1
Then at him.
And something in her cracked.
“You should be dead,” she whispered.
“I was,” he said. “You lit the match.”
🩶 The Past Comes Screaming
His voice stayed steady, but pain laced every word.
“I waited for you that night.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ83mvXUgUMU
The night we promised to run.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjj7yrr8zik
I waited at the chapel — until it burned.”
Her eyes flickered — rage, grief, guilt, all tangled in something deeper.
“You don’t know what he did to me,” she hissed.
He nodded. “Then tell me.”
And for the first time, Panna stopped pretending.
🩸 Her Secret
She didn’t just fail to escape.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPivHAjhvB
She was caught.
Her father dragged her back by her hair.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi73y7OLLTC
Beat her.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsBteHD4Udv
Tied her to the window.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEcPhZGj6KU
Made her watch the chapel burn.
“I thought you were dead,” she whispered. “I screamed. I begged him. I would’ve taken the fire myself.”
“And the next morning?” he asked.
She looked away.
“The town needed a face.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBFakBWMOvm
So I smiled.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5HXVdCOhjf
I let the monster put me beside him.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGItAyOy9cH
I buried what I loved… and became what I hated.”
She touched her temple. “After he died, I thought I was free… but something stayed with me.”
“You split,” he said quietly. “One side still loved me.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYQr9I2uZ8s
The other just wanted to survive.”
🔥 Let It Burn
Suddenly — gunshots.
One of the shadows moved too fast.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWJJfpFkLj
The traveler ducked.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31U5Eew8wr
The fight erupted.
Panna didn’t flinch. She just… watched.
Two men dropped.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxhjhX0knBf
The traveler bled.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnIAU4XMEPg
But he still stood.
He turned to her — eyes wild.
“Tell them to stop.”
She tilted her head.
“Do you still believe I’m worth saving?” she asked softly.
He stepped closer, blood trailing behind him.
“I never came here to kill you, Panna.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHm84zpC9d5
I came here to remind you who you were before this town broke you.”
“That girl is gone.”
“Then let her die,” he said. “And walk out of here with me. Not as Panna Willowbrook. Just as… you.”
Silence.
She walked to him — slow, silent.
Took his hand.
And gave the order: “Stand down.”
🌑 No One Leaves?
As they walked through the rain together — wounded, raw, reborn — the townspeople watched.
No one stopped them.
No one dared.
The traveler looked back one last time. At the tavern. At the graves behind the mayor’s house. At the ashes of all they'd lost.
Panna whispered, “No one leaves Pacifica Shores.”
He smiled. “We just did.”
🕯️ Epilogue
A year later, the tavern still stands.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDnbws6wvB
A new sign hangs above the door: Sanctuary.
Some say it’s cursed.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6dcmDCHOQw
Some say the old queen vanished into the woods.
But late at night, when the rain falls gently —49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHM7CZAtdO
You might hear music.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5hm2TzhfiE
Laughter.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFCI8Tm0SN
And two voices whispering behind the bar.
“I burned for you once,” he says.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsO05O6HoqY
“Then let’s build something new from the ashes,” she answers.
THE END49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSzZcGSTPfY
(But no story ever truly ends in Pacifica Shores.)
