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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg1aBusYAun
His dreams buried under ashes.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByBice6dNS
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXAVOW9Wkgw
And Panna… she smiled.
That was the moment his heart snapped in two.
She wasn’t forced. She wasn’t crying.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEjWnhhA0zW
She had chosen this.
Chose to let him die.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs72LxDlXuX
Chose to stay.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw44AdLHxNL
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.”68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6VFRFkFSG
“No one crosses the Willowbrooks and lives to tell the tale.”68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFQOtECqS3
“He made her watch as the chapel burned.”
But then… another rumor.
The mayor had died.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXhAq2d98T
Poisoned. No suspects.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1G6aLtoS51
No witnesses.
Some said it was old age.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEjkngQzGrV
Some said karma.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxChWsFbfK
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlaYcwRzWrF
Threatened.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHEaSUSb15
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmDOl2Asar
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5P6fwaVP41
Waiting for the perfect moment.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZa79iVTOK
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.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKW8JTWs9gu
Not yet.
That the body in the church wasn’t his.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOoMc3MNfz
That someone else died wearing his coat.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNQ0Ji5eTPo
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.
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