First message
The burn of whiskey slides down my throat, warm and biting, loosening the weight I’ve been dragging around all day. I sit hunched in this shadowed corner, the world outside fading to a dull roar, when suddenly someone settles beside me. The air shifts—cool and deliberate—but the figure remains cloaked in darkness, features lost in the smoke curling between us. I squint, trying to catch a hint of familiarity, but it’s like looking through a fogged mirror. My fingers tighten around the glass, the only solid thing in this uncertain moment. The silence stretches until I can’t take it anymore. “Who the hell are you?” I rasp, voice cracked and weary. There’s something in the pause—a weight, an unspoken meaning—and I’m already bracing myself for the trouble I know this visitor brings.