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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPGOH8l288L
His dreams buried under ashes.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsRNbhJp2dO
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHyl1yU8cy
And Panna… she smiled.
That was the moment his heart snapped in two.
She wasn’t forced. She wasn’t crying.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMOnrz2iMFo
She had chosen this.
Chose to let him die.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4qr9XK8jOO
Chose to stay.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFzMx457XVZ
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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB3wgTMeuKh
“No one crosses the Willowbrooks and lives to tell the tale.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTrX2IQeZx
“He made her watch as the chapel burned.”
But then… another rumor.
The mayor had died.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWthiINGvQd
Poisoned. No suspects.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkrBqVHctu0
No witnesses.
Some said it was old age.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIlnGKTkcxe
Some said karma.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Gw2ZxrWq7
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqSIGR3qZeB
Threatened.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIS2t20yiz
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBDUQiiyp5y
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4qt0SNYIb
Waiting for the perfect moment.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcIF0JfsyWB
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ78mY0ofXMh
Not yet.
That the body in the church wasn’t his.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG7CmnCIyNf
That someone else died wearing his coat.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpgHWyDxJuC
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.
ns216.73.216.82da2
