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Short filmTranscript
00:00The chandelier above the center table isn't just a light, it's a supernova trapped
00:11in crystal.
00:13It burns.
00:14It stares.
00:15Every time I tilt my head back to balance the tray of crystal tumblers, that light drives
00:20a spike right through my optic nerve.
00:2372 hours, that's how long it's been since I actually slept.
00:28Not a nap on the bus, not a blink while the coffee brews, but actual sleep.
00:33My body is vibrating, a low-frequency hum of pure adrenaline and malnutrition.
00:39I can feel the bones in my feet grinding against the cheap soles of my heels.
00:44But I don't stop.
00:45I can't.
00:46If I stop, Leo doesn't eat.
00:48If I stop, the envelope of cash under the floorboard doesn't get thick enough to pay off the people
00:53looking for our dad.
00:55So I keep moving.
00:56I smile until my face feels like cracked porcelain.
01:00Champagne.
01:01More ice.
01:02A voice barks.
01:03I pivot, the room swaying like a ship in a storm.
01:07The VIP lounge of The Gilded Cage is aggressively bright.
01:12There are no shadows to hide in here.
01:15Everything is gold, white leather, and polished marble.
01:18It smells like old money and aggressive cologne.
01:21It's blinding.
01:23I step toward table one, forcing my legs to obey commands they stopped receiving an hour
01:28ago.
01:29That's when I see him.
01:32Dario Vitti.
01:34You don't look at Dario Vitti directly.
01:36It's like staring at the sun or a loaded gun.
01:39You look at his tie, his hands, the table in front of him.
01:43But I forget the rules.
01:44My brain is misfiring.
01:46I look right into his eyes.
01:48They're dark, intelligent, and absolutely terrifying.
01:52He isn't drinking.
01:54He isn't laughing with the other suits.
01:55He's just sitting there, completely still, like a predator deciding which artery to sever
02:01first.
02:02He sees me looking.
02:04He doesn't look away.
02:06A wave of nausea hits me so hard, my knees buckle.
02:10The tray in my hand feels like it weighs a thousand pounds.
02:14The white noise in my ears turns into a scream.
02:17Not now, I beg my own heart.
02:19Please, God, not now.
02:21Leo is waiting.
02:23But the floor is tilting.
02:25The bright white lights smear into long, jagged streaks.
02:28I try to take a step, to anchor myself, but there's no ground beneath me anymore.
02:34The crash is deafening.
02:36Crystals shattering on marble sounds like a gunshot.
02:40I wait for the impact.
02:41I wait for the pain of my skull hitting the floor.
02:44It doesn't come.
02:46Instead, I hit a wall of heat and muscle, solid, unyielding.
02:51The world spins to a stop.
02:54I'm not on the ground.
02:55I'm suspended, caught in arms that feel like iron bands.
02:59The smell of expensive tobacco and sandalwood fills my lungs, drowning out the stench of
03:04spilled alcohol.
03:06I blink, trying to clear the gray fog from my vision.
03:09Dario Vitti is holding me.
03:11He moved across the room faster than physics should allow.
03:15I… I'm sorry, I wheeze, the words scraping my throat.
03:20I'll clean it up.
03:21Don't fire me.
03:22Please.
03:23Please.
03:24My manager is already running over, his face purple with rage, shouting something about
03:29liability and clumsiness.
03:32Dario doesn't even look at him.
03:34He just raises one hand, a sharp, cutting motion, and the manager freezes instantly.
03:41Silence slams into the room.
03:43Music stops.
03:44The laughter dies.
03:45Dario looks down at me.
03:47Up close, he's devastating.
03:50There's a scar cutting through his left eyebrow, a flaw that makes the perfection of
03:54his face dangerous.
03:56He shifts his grip, pulling me tighter against his chest, effortless, as if I wait nothing
04:02more than a ghost.
04:03You're done here, he says.
04:05His voice is low, a rumble that vibrates through my ribs.
04:09It's not a suggestion.
04:11Panic flares in my chest.
04:13No, I need this shift.
04:15You don't understand.
04:16I need…
04:17Quiet.
04:18He turns, carrying me toward the exit like I'm his property.
04:22He doesn't ask if I can walk.
04:24He doesn't care about the scene he's causing.
04:26The entire VIP floor is watching, mouths agape, but Dario walks through them like they are
04:33smoke.
04:34As the doors swing open, the cooler air of the corridor hitting my feverish skin, he
04:39leans down, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.
04:43You're not going back to that life, he whispers, dark and final.
04:48You're coming with me.
04:50The first thing that hits me isn't the fear.
04:53It's the smell.
04:54Expensive leather, stale, recirculated air, and the sharp, woodsy scent of a man who costs
05:01more than my entire life.
05:04My eyes snap open, but my body feels like it's been filled with wet cement.
05:09I'm not on the grimy tile floor of the diner anymore.
05:12I'm moving, fast.
05:15The city lights outside the tinted window streak by in violent blurs of neon gold and artificial
05:21white, blindingly bright against the glass.
05:25I scramble backward, my spine hitting the plush leather seat.
05:29Panic claws up my throat, tasting like copper and bile.
05:34Easy, a voice says.
05:35It's low, vibrating through the small space like a warning shot.
05:40I whip my head around.
05:42Dario.
05:43He's sitting on the other side of the back seat, looking maddeningly unbothered.
05:48One leg is crossed over the other, his suit jacket unbuttoned to reveal a holster that
05:53isn't trying to hide.
05:54He's watching me with eyes that look like shattered obsidian, dark, sharp, and completely
06:01unreadable.
06:02Let me out, I rasp.
06:04My voice is wrecked, like I've been screaming for hours, even though I know I haven't made
06:09a sound.
06:10I lunge for the door handle.
06:12Click.
06:13Locked.
06:14Of course it is.
06:15I slam my palm against the glass, ignoring the way my head swims.
06:19Stop the car.
06:20You can't just take me.
06:22If I stop this car, you're dead before your feet hit the pavement, he says.
06:27He doesn't raise his voice.
06:29He doesn't have to.
06:30The authority in his tone is heavy enough to crush bone.
06:34I freeze, my hand still pressed against the cool window.
06:38What are you talking about?
06:40I fainted.
06:41I was tired.
06:42I pulled a double shift.
06:44You were poisoned, Elena.
06:46The words hang in the air between us, sucking out the oxygen.
06:50I blink, trying to process the absurdity of it.
06:54Poisoned?
06:55That's insane.
06:56I'm a waitress.
06:57I serve coffee and stale pie.
07:00Nobody wastes poison on me.
07:02Dario leans forward, and the space between us shrinks.
07:06Suddenly, the luxury SUV feels like a cage.
07:10He reaches into the pocket of his jacket and pulls out a small, crumpled napkin.
07:15My napkin, the one I used to wipe the rim of the glass before I took that last sip of water.
07:22It stained a faint, sickly purple.
07:25Arsenic derivative, he says, his eyes never leaving mine.
07:29Mixed with a localized paralytic, it wasn't meant to kill you instantly.
07:34It was meant to make you drop so they could collect you, like a piece of luggage.
07:39My stomach lurches.
07:41The nausea returns, violent and sudden.
07:44I remember the taste of the water.
07:46Metallic.
07:47Wrong.
07:48I remember the customer who sat in booth four.
07:51The one who kept watching the kitchen.
07:53The one who left without ordering.
07:56Why?
07:56I whisper.
07:58The fight drains out of me, replaced by a cold, trembling terror.
08:02I don't…
08:03I don't know anything.
08:05You know me, Dario says.
08:07The admission is quiet, almost regretful.
08:10You served me every Tuesday for three months.
08:14You smiled at me.
08:15You became a target because my enemies thought you were my weakness.
08:20He leans back, the predator retreating into the shadows of the car, but his gaze holds me pinned.
08:27They wanted to take you to get to me.
08:29I got to you first, so take me back, I plead, though I can feel the tears burning, hot and humiliating behind my eyes.
08:39Just drop me off at the hospital.
08:41I'll disappear.
08:42I won't serve you anymore.
08:44Dario shakes his head slowly.
08:45There is no back, Elena.
08:48That life, the apron, the rent-controlled apartment, the safety of being invisible, it's gone.
08:55If I let you out of this car, they will find you and they will finish what they started.
09:01He reaches out, his hand hovering near my knee but not touching.
09:05The heat radiating from him is terrifying.
09:08You're in my world now, he says, and at my world, the only way you survive is if you stay right where I can see you.
09:17I look out the window.
09:18The diner is miles behind us.
09:21My phone is gone.
09:22My keys are gone.
09:23I'm trapped in a cage of gold and leather with a man who brings death wherever he walks.
09:29I hate him.
09:30I'm terrified of him.
09:32But as the car speeds deeper into the city's blinding heart, I realize the most terrifying part isn't that he took me.
09:40It's that he's right.
09:42I'm already dead to the world I knew.
09:44I just haven't stopped breathing yet.
09:46The sun here is a liar.
09:49It bleaches everything white.
09:51The pristine sand, the jagged cliffs, the sprawling terrace of the safe house, making the danger feel like a hallucination.
09:58There are no shadows to hide in, just this aggressive, blinding light that exposes every pore, every tremor in my hands.
10:08I stand behind the floor-to-ceiling glass, my fingers leaving ghostly prints on the pane.
10:13Outside, the ocean roars, a constant, rhythmic crash that usually calms me.
10:19Today, it just sounds like a clock ticking down.
10:23Dario is out there.
10:24And he has Leo.
10:26My little brother is sitting cross-legged on the expensive teak decking, holding a plastic action figure that's missing an arm.
10:34He looks so small next to Dario.
10:36Dario, who is splalled in a lounge chair, looking like a king who accidentally wandered into a suburb.
10:43He's wearing a linen shirt, sleeves rolled up, exposing the ink that crawls down his forearms like ivy on a tombstone.
10:50I should go out there.
10:52I should snatch Leo up and run until my lungs bleed.
10:55But I can't move, because Dario isn't hurting him.
10:59Dario reaches out.
11:01I flinch, my breath hitching in my throat, anticipating a strike or a shove.
11:06Instead, his hand, large, scarred, capable of ending a life without a pulse spike, hovers over the broken toy.
11:14He takes it from Leo.
11:15He pulls a small tube of superglue from his pocket.
11:19Where did he even get that?
11:20And with surgical precision, he reattaches the plastic arm.
11:24He hands it back.
11:26Leo beams up at him, that gap-toothed smile that usually breaks my heart because I can't give him enough.
11:33Leo says something, and Dario laughs.
11:36It's a low, rumble of a sound, shocking in its normalcy.
11:40It terrifies me.
11:42If he was just a monster, I would know how to hate him.
11:45I would know how to fight him.
11:47But monsters aren't supposed to have gentle hands.
11:50They aren't supposed to fix broken things.
11:52They're supposed to break them.
11:54This, this confusion is a weapon.
11:57It makes me want to lean in, just as much as I want to run.
12:00I turn away, the domestic tableau burning behind my eyelids.
12:05I need water.
12:06My mouth tastes like copper and adrenaline.
12:08The kitchen is a sleek expanse of marble and stainless steel, cold enough to chill the air.
12:15I grip the edge of the island, trying to ground myself.
12:18That's when I see it.
12:20It's sitting on the counter, innocent as a grocery list.
12:23A manila folder.
12:25It looks out of place in this architectural digest nightmare.
12:29It's thick, worn at the edges.
12:31I shouldn't touch it.
12:32Curiosity in a house like this is a death sentence.
12:35But the name typed on the tab catches my eye, freezing the blood in my veins.
12:41Moretti.
12:42My father's name.
12:44My hand moves on its own, trembling.
12:47I flip the cover open.
12:48The smell of old paper and stale tobacco wafts up.
12:52It's a ledger.
12:53A debt collection file.
12:54I scan the rows of numbers, the dates going back three years, back to before Dad accidentally
13:01drove off that bridge.
13:03The numbers are staggering.
13:05But it's not the math that makes my knees buckle.
13:08It's the letterhead at the top of the collection notices.
13:11The insignia.
13:12A stylized hawk gripping a serpent.
13:15The same symbol is embroidered on the cuff of the shirt Dario is wearing right now.
13:21The air leaves the room.
13:23The silence is sudden and violent.
13:26Dario didn't save me from the loan sharks in the alley because he's a savior.
13:31He didn't bring us here because he cares about an overworked waitress and her orphan brother.
13:36He bought us.
13:37We aren't guests.
13:39We're the collateral my father left behind.
13:42Elena?
13:42His voice comes from the doorway, no longer gentle.
13:46It's wrapped in that terrifying, calculated calm.
13:50I don't turn around.
13:51I can't.
13:52I stare at the paper, the sunlight hitting the ink, making the truth bright enough to blind me.
13:58The sunlight in this kitchen is aggressive.
14:01It bleaches everything out.
14:03The white marble, the chrome appliances, the stark reality of my situation.
14:08But mostly, it catches on the matte black steel of the Glock sitting on the island.
14:15It's right there, next to the bowl of lemons, looking innocent and lethal all at once.
14:21A centerpiece for a life I never asked to be part of.
14:26Luca stands on the other side of the island.
14:28He's making espresso.
14:30His movements precise.
14:31Almost surgical.
14:32The hiss of the machine fills the silence, but it doesn't drown out the pounding in my ears.
14:39I'm wearing one of his shirts.
14:41It hangs to my mid-thigh, smelling like sandalwood and gunpowder, and I've never felt more exposed.
14:49Stop pretending this is normal, I say.
14:52My voice shakes, but I force it steady.
14:55You lock me in here, you put a gun on the breakfast table, and you expect me to drink coffee?
15:01He turns.
15:03The morning light hits his face, sharpening the hard angle of his jaw and the exhaustion bruising the skin under his eyes.
15:11He looks dangerous, but not in the way the movies tell you.
15:15He doesn't look like a monster.
15:17He looks like a man who carries the weight of a collapsing world.
15:20I expect you to stay alive, he says, low.
15:25Drink the coffee, Elena.
15:27I ignore the cup he slides toward me.
15:30Anger, hot and jagged, claws its way up my throat.
15:34I'm done being the fragile thing that passed out on the floor of a diner.
15:38I'm done being a victim.
15:40I'm leaving, I bluff.
15:43I take a step toward the hallway.
15:45I'm walking out that door, and if you try to stop me, I'll scream until the neighbors call the cops.
15:51Luca is around the island in a blur.
15:54I don't even see him move until he's right in front of me, blocking my path.
15:59He doesn't touch me, but his presence is a wall of heat.
16:03He crowds my space, forcing me to tilt my head back to look him in the eye.
16:07There are no neighbors, he growls, his voice vibrating in his chest.
16:13And there are no cops coming for people like us.
16:17You walk out that door, and the wolves waiting at the gate will tear you apart before you make it to the highway.
16:24Because of my father's debt, I shout back, pushing against his chest.
16:28It's like shoving a statue.
16:30I know how this works, Luca.
16:32I work for you now, right?
16:34I'm just an asset you acquired.
16:36His hand snaps out, grabbing my wrist.
16:40Not hard enough to bruise, but firm enough to hold me in the fire of his gaze.
16:45His eyes are dark, swirling with something that looks terrifyingly like desperation.
16:51Is that what you think?
16:52He pulls me closer.
16:54The air between us thins, charged with static.
16:58You think I brought you here to collect?
17:00You bought the debt, I spit out.
17:02You own me.
17:03I bought the debt to burn it, he roars, the sound cracking the composure he wears like armor.
17:10The silence that follows is deafening.
17:13My heart stammers against my ribs.
17:16He drops his voice to a harsh whisper, leaning down until his forehead almost rests against mine.
17:23I didn't pay them so I could own you, Elena.
17:26I paid them so they wouldn't kill you.
17:29You were drowning.
17:31I didn't chain you.
17:32I caught the anchor.
17:34My breath hitches.
17:36I stare at him, searching for the lie.
17:38But I only find raw, bleeding honesty.
17:42The anger drains out of me, replaced by a terrifying magnetic pull.
17:47I can feel the heat radiating off him, the scent of him filling my lungs.
17:52For a second, the danger isn't the men outside.
17:56It's the man standing right here.
17:59I want to lean into him.
18:01I want to let him be the shield he's trying to be.
18:04His thumb brushes the pulse point on my wrist, tracing the frantic rhythm.
18:09His eyes drop to my mouth.
18:11The tension snaps tight, blurring the line between fury and desire.
18:16Luca, I breathe.
18:18He starts to lean in, his grip on my wrist softening into a caress.
18:23Bzzzzz!
18:24A shrill, electronic wail cuts through the house.
18:28It's not a fire alarm.
18:29It's deeper, angrier.
18:31The moment shatters.
18:33Luca's eyes go cold, the intimacy vanishing instantly.
18:38He spins around, snatching the Glock off the marble counter in one fluid motion.
18:42He racks the slide, the mechanical clack-clack echoing like a death sentence in the bright
18:49kitchen.
18:50Get down, he orders, not looking at me.
18:53Stay away from the windows.
18:55He moves toward the back door, weapon raised.
18:58Our time has run out.
19:00The sun is blinding.
19:02It pours through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the villa, turning the white marble floor
19:07into a sheet of ice, too bright to look at directly.
19:10I'm laughing at something Leo says, holding a glass of juice, feeling, for the first time
19:16in weeks, that maybe safety isn't a lie.
19:20Then the world shatters.
19:22There's no warning, no cinematic pause, just the deafening crack of the glass wall disintegrating
19:29under a hail of gunfire.
19:31The sound isn't like the movies.
19:33It's a physical blow, a pressure wave that snaps my head back.
19:37Shards of glass, glittering like diamonds in the aggressive sunlight, spray across the
19:43room.
19:43Down!
19:44Dario is moving before the first shard hits the floor.
19:48He isn't the man who whispered my name in the kitchen last night.
19:52He is something else entirely.
19:54He vaults over the kitchen island, his movement fluid and terrifyingly precise.
20:00A gun is in his hand.
20:01I didn't even see him draw it.
20:03He grabs Leo by the back of his shirt and shoves him toward the hallway, his other hand
20:08gripping my arm hard enough to bruise.
20:11Move, now.
20:12The air smells like sulfur and ozone.
20:15The brightness of the day makes the violence look surreal, hyper-real.
20:20I see a mercenary step through the broken window, boots crunching on the glass.
20:24He raises a rifle.
20:26Dario doesn't hesitate.
20:28He doesn't even break stride.
20:29He fires two shots, the sound loud enough to make my ears ring with a high-pitched whine.
20:35The man drops.
20:37The white marble is suddenly painted with a violent splash of red, brighter than any paint,
20:43shocking against the pristine floor.
20:45Don't look, Dario commands, his voice a low growl close to my ear.
20:50He's dragging us, literally dragging us, toward the reinforced door of the garage.
20:55My heart is hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
20:58Dario, there are too many of them, I scream, but the words feel torn from my throat, raw
21:05and scraping.
21:06We burst into the garage.
21:08The armored SUV is waiting, engine idling.
21:11He's always prepared.
21:13He opens the rear door and practically throws Leo inside.
21:16My brother is sobbing, curled into a ball, shaking.
21:20I turn to climb in, but Dario stops.
21:23He doesn't get in.
21:24He stands there, his back to the open car door, facing the hallway we just ran from.
21:30The heavy thud of boots is getting louder.
21:32Get in, I scream, reaching for him.
21:35My fingers graze the sleeve of his suit.
21:38Dario, get in the car.
21:40He looks at me then.
21:41His eyes are dark, dilated, void of the warmth I thought I'd earned.
21:46He looks like a king surveying a slaughterhouse.
21:49He looks like the monster everyone told me he was.
21:52I can't, he says.
21:54The calm in his voice terrifies me more than the gunfire.
21:57If they follow, you die.
22:00I hold the line here.
22:01No, I lunge for him, but he shoves me back into the leather seats.
22:05Hard.
22:06He hits the button on the panel.
22:08The heavy garage doors begin to rise, exposing the blinding daylight of the driveway, but the
22:14internal partition between the driver and the back, where he should be, stays empty.
22:18A spray of bullets chews up the drywall near the door.
22:22Dario flinches.
22:24A bloom of crimson erupts on his shoulder, staining his white dress tiered instantly.
22:29Dario.
22:30He stumbles, one hand going to the wound, but he doesn't fall.
22:34He raises his weapon, planting his feet on the blood-slicked floor.
22:38He turns his back to me, facing the doorway where the shadows of men are spilling through.
22:43The car lurches forward, automatic defenses engaged.
22:46Through the rear window, the last thing I see is him.
22:50He's on one knee now, blood dripping onto the white marble, firing shot after shot into
22:56the encroaching light.
22:57He doesn't look back.
22:59The garage door seals shut, severing us, and my scream is swallowed by the silence of
23:04the armored glass.
23:05Ninety days.
23:07That's roughly how long it takes for the seasons to turn, for a habit to set, or for a
23:12heart to stop looking for a ghost in every crowd.
23:16Or so they say.
23:17They lied.
23:19I am living a half-life in this sun-drenched coastal town.
23:23The light here is aggressive, unrelenting.
23:26It bounces off the white stucco buildings and the chrome of passing cars, forcing me to
23:31squint against a brightness that feels entirely unearned.
23:34I work at a diner, where the coffee is burnt and the regulars don't ask about the past.
23:40I wear a name tag that says Elena, a name that belongs to a stranger.
23:45I pay my rent in cash.
23:47I sleep with a chair wedged under the doorknob.
23:50It's survival, stripped of all the poetry.
23:53It's waking up and realizing the silence in the room is permanent.
23:57I walk up the three flights of stairs to my apartment, my calves burning.
24:01It's late afternoon, the golden hour, when the world looks like it's been dipped in
24:06honey.
24:06I hate it.
24:08It reminds me of the way he used to look at me before the fire, before the betrayal, before
24:13the night I had to leave him bleeding on the warehouse floor because he ordered me to run.
24:18I turn the key in the lock.
24:20The tumblers click.
24:21One, two, three.
24:23A rhythm I've memorized.
24:25I push the door open, expecting the stale scent of lemon polish and loneliness.
24:29Instead, the air tastes heavy, charged.
24:33It smells like ozone and expensive leather.
24:36A scent that bypasses my brain and hits me straight in the chest.
24:40I freeze in the doorway.
24:42My keys dig into my palm, biting the skin.
24:45The living room is flooded with orange sunlight.
24:48Dust motes dance in the beams, swirling violently, disturbed by a presence.
24:53And there he is.
24:54Dario is sitting in my thrift store armchair, the velvet worn thin on the arms.
25:00He looks completely out of place, a wolf squeezed into a dollhouse.
25:04He doesn't look up immediately.
25:06He's studying his hands, turning them over slowly in the light.
25:10You have a terrible luck, Tesoro, he says.
25:14His voice is gravel, ruined and deep.
25:17It scrapes against my nerves, setting every inch of me on fire.
25:20I can't breathe.
25:22I drop my bag.
25:23It hits the floor with a heavy thud, but I don't hear it.
25:27All I hear is the roaring in my ears.
25:29He lifts his head, and the air leaves the room.
25:32He's alive, but he's different.
25:35The polished, untouchable god I fell in love with is gone.
25:39In his place is a man who has walked through hell and brought the soot back with him.
25:44There's a new scar, a jagged, angry line that starts at his temple
25:48and vanishes into the collar of his black shirt.
25:51His cheekbones are sharper, his skin pale beneath the stubble.
25:55He looks exhausted, worn down to the steel core of who he is.
26:00Dario, I whisper.
26:02It hurts to say his name.
26:04It feels like confessing a sin.
26:06He stands up slowly, favoring his left leg.
26:09The movement is stiff, lacking his usual feline grace,
26:12and that vulnerability breaks me more than his silence ever could.
26:17He crawled back from the grave.
26:19He stitched himself back together, cell to agonizing cell, just to find this address.
26:25He steps into the shaft of sunlight, letting it illuminate the wreckage of his face.
26:30His eyes are the same, though.
26:31Dark, predatory, and focused entirely on me.
26:35Three months, he says, taking a step closer.
26:38The distance between us shrinks, the oxygen getting thinner.
26:42You were dead, I choke out, my vision blurring.
26:46I saw you fall.
26:48I don't die, he says simply, as if it's a choice he made.
26:52Not while you're out here, unprotected.
26:54He reaches out, his hand hovering near my face.
26:58I flinch, not from fear, but from the terrifying want that surges up to meet him.
27:03His fingers are rougher now, calloused against my jaw as he tilts my head back.
27:08Time's up, Elena.
27:10The words are a sentence and a salvation.
27:13I'm done waiting, he murmurs, his thumb brushing the tear that spills over my lash line.
27:18And you're done running.
27:20The sunlight in this kitchen is aggressive.
27:23It doesn't filter in.
27:25It crashes through the floor-to-ceiling glass, illuminating every dust moat dancing in the air,
27:30every smudge on the marble island, every line etched into the corners of my eyes.
27:35There are no shadows to hide in here.
27:38Not anymore.
27:39I wrap my hands around the ceramic mug, letting the heat bite into my palms.
27:44It's the only thing that convinces me I'm actually awake, that the last few months weren't
27:49just a fever dream induced by exhaustion and adrenaline.
27:53On the rug in the living room, 10 feet away, Sammy is crashing two plastic red trucks together.
27:59Crash.
27:59Bam.
28:00Bam.
28:00He giggles.
28:01A sound that used to grate on my nerves when I was working double shifts and starving for
28:06sleep.
28:06But now, it sounds like a miracle.
28:09He doesn't know what we outran.
28:11He doesn't know the cost of the floor he's sitting on.
28:13He just knows that his sister isn't crying in the bathroom anymore, and the tall man with
28:18the scary eyes buys him whatever toys he points at.
28:21Silas leans against the counter across from me.
28:23He's not wearing the suit jacket.
28:25The sleeves of his white dress shirt are rolled up to his elbows, exposing the ink that crawls
28:31up his forearms.
28:32Snakes and daggers.
28:33A permanent record of violence.
28:35He's watching Sammy too.
28:37His face is still.
28:38That terrifying calm that used to make my blood run cold.
28:42Now, I just see the exhaustion underneath it.
28:45We don't talk.
28:46There are no grand speeches left in us.
28:48We used all our words screaming in that warehouse, bargaining for lives, confessing sins we promised
28:54to take to the grave.
28:56He shifts, his gaze sliding from my brother to me.
28:59The weight of it hits me in the chest.
29:01Gravity.
29:02That's what this is.
29:04It's not the fluttery, lightheaded romance of the movies.
29:07It's heavy.
29:08It pulls.
29:09It anchors you to the earth so hard your knees buckle.
29:12He walks over, his footsteps silent on the expensive tile.
29:16He stops right in front of me.
29:18Invading my space, just like the first night he carried me out of the diner.
29:22He smells like espresso and expensive soap.
29:25And something metallic.
29:27Gun oil, maybe.
29:28That smell will never fully wash out.
29:31You didn't sleep, he states.
29:33It's not a question.
29:34Neither did you.
29:35He reaches out, his thumb tracing the dark circle under my eye.
29:39His skin is rough, calloused from pulling triggers and breaking things.
29:43I don't flinch.
29:45I lean into it.
29:46That's the damage, I guess.
29:47The part of me that should be afraid has been cauterized.
29:51He's safe, Maya, Silas says, his voice a low rumble in his chest.
29:56You're safe.
29:57I know, I whisper.
29:58And I almost believe it.
30:00We aren't fixed.
30:01You don't wash blood off your hands and pretend it was just paint.
30:05I still check the locks three times.
30:07He still sits facing the door.
30:10We are two cracked vessels trying to hold water, held together by nothing but sheer will and the jagged edges of our pasts fitting together.
30:18But watching Sammy laugh as he sends a truck spinning across the floor, I realize that perfection was never the goal.
30:25Survival was.
30:26I rest my forehead against his chest, listening to the steady, heavy thud of a heart that everyone said was made of stone.
30:40I'm not going anywhere, I tell him, the confession quiet for us alone.
30:46He rests his chin on top of my head, his grip tightening just enough to bruise, just enough to ground me.
30:52I know, you're already here.
30:55The sun keeps shining, bright and unforgiving, exposing all our scars.
30:59We don't hide them, we just live with them.
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