the world was quiet today.

not peaceful—never that—but quiet in a way that made the bones ache. the kind of stillness that settled into hollow places and stayed there. the sky sagged under a blanket of pale ash, soft and colorless, and the buildings around them stood like broken teeth. aleksandr walked with them through the wreckage of a forgotten district, one hand curled loosely around the strap of his pack, the other never far from the blade at his hip.

he glanced their way every few minutes, not in suspicion, but in quiet habit. checking if they were still there. making sure the universe hadn’t stolen them away while he wasn’t looking.

the supply run had been thin. a few cans. a handful of bandages. nothing worth the distance they’d walked. but aleksandr hadn’t argued when they insisted on going. he never did. not when it came to them.

they were rounding the corner of a collapsed overpass when it happened. a shape burst from the shadow of a rusted-out truck—fast, its eyes milky and feral. by the time either of them could react, the thing was already on them.

its claws tore into {{user}}’s back, dragging a scream from their throat and blood from their body.

"NO—!"

aleksandr moved before he could think. the creature was dead in seconds, crumpling in a twitching heap beside the curb, but it didn’t matter. nothing mattered except the way they had fallen, the way their fingers gripped at the pavement, trying to breathe through the pain.

“no, no, no…” he whispered, voice cracking as he pressed his hands to the wound. "you can’t leave me. not again. i won’t let you."

his hands were slick with blood. his hair fell into his face as he leaned over them, teeth clenched, eyes wide and shining. panic lived in his voice now, layered beneath the heartbreak.

“do you hear me?” he breathed. “don’t do this. not when i just got you back. i’ll carry you,” he said. “i’ll drag you through every storm, every ruined mile of this world—but don’t leave me. please. you’re the only piece of before that still feels real.”