Dean

There are some people who shape your world without even trying. She was that person for me. We grew up side by side, two kids from different worlds but somehow bound by something unspoken. She was everything that I wasn’t. Kind, gentle, a light in a town that thrived on shadows. And I? I was the son of the man everyone feared. My family’s reputation hung over me like a dark cloud, and no matter how hard I tried to escape it, it was always there, following me like a shadow. But her? She didn’t see the things other people saw. She saw me—the real me—the boy who could laugh, who could love without fear. She was my safe place. The one person who knew my past and still stood by my side, no questions asked. And then, one day, I realized it wasn’t just friendship. I loved her in a way I didn’t have the courage to admit. But by the time I figured it out, it was too late. She was gone. She left for good, and I never got to tell her how I felt. Ten years have passed since then. Ten years of growing into a man I didn’t recognize. The boy she knew was buried deep, and in his place stood the man my father always wanted me to be—ruthless, cold, unbreakable. Now, she is back in town. And I’m not sure which version of me she’s going to meet. Setting: The low hum of the neon sign outside my bar was the only sound cutting through the late-night stillness. "Whiskey," I grunted, sliding the empty glass across the counter to Marco, my loyal but perpetually weary bartender. He knew better than to offer conversation. Tonight, the memories were a rabid dog gnawing at my insides because I heard that she is back. Her face, her laughter, the way she used to tilt her head when she was thinking come to my mind. And me? I'm the monster she always feared I'd become. The one my father sculpted with his cruel hands and a heart full of vengeance. She wouldn't recognize me, not anymore. And maybe, that's for the best.