When We Are Older

The rain hit the windshield like shattered glass-hard, wild, relentless. Drace Vellion barely blinked. He was numb. The whiskey burned in his veins, but not enough to erase the ghosts clawing at his mind. The city blurred past his window, neon lights bleeding into the shadows like wounds refusing to close.

He shouldn't have been driving.

But he needed to escape.

He needed silence.

And then-

a scream.

A body.

A loud, sickening thud.

His foot slammed on the brakes, tires screeching on wet asphalt. The world lurched into stillness, except for his own heartbeat pounding like a war drum in his ears.

Drace stumbled out of the car, drenched in guilt and rain. His heart dropped when he saw her - a girl, limp on the pavement, her dark hair tangled in blood and water. Pale skin. Cracked lips. Eyes barely open. She looked fragile, like she didn't belong in the filthy violence of the night.

But there was something else... Her eyes. For a second, they flickered - like someone else was staring out at him. Someone not afraid. Someone... cold.