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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjLQl971eOF
His dreams buried under ashes.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXiThda7Wuz
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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX8cyCFGEu3
And Panna… she smiled.
That was the moment his heart snapped in two.
She wasn’t forced. She wasn’t crying.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2IZV8HXJup
She had chosen this.
Chose to let him die.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHI0C2FgKi
Chose to stay.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9n184XQagf
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.”63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7uC3xBAf9
“No one crosses the Willowbrooks and lives to tell the tale.”63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Kkq9vHVbU
“He made her watch as the chapel burned.”
But then… another rumor.
The mayor had died.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRvKaRgzfw
Poisoned. No suspects.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMwgWHXs2CH
No witnesses.
Some said it was old age.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9XwGZ5TGEP
Some said karma.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQdYiDjOf54
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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu4J2AdJqEW
Threatened.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC8zc0XLj3D
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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT9KCdrbHJC
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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIJLAvt4q8
Waiting for the perfect moment.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnNsVAip3kd
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.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPF1f0kVlUF
Not yet.
That the body in the church wasn’t his.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3DmhLeRtwA
That someone else died wearing his coat.63Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDuvnoprDpK
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.
ns216.73.216.82da2
and then Add to home screen.