As he dragged me into the alley devoid of afternoon sunlight, the reality around me seemed to dissolve into a frenetic whirlwind of confusion and chaos. My heart thumped in my chest, its rhythm matching the frantic pace of my thoughts. What had happened? How had everything spiraled into such disarray?
I tried to make sense of the madness that enveloped me, desperately searching for any semblance of order. The more I tried to grasp at the fragments of my surroundings, the more his grip tightened around my wrist. We ventured deeper into the labyrinthine alleyway, deep into the thick shroud of darkness. The air was heavy with an unsettling stillness.
It was in this eerie setting that my eyes fell upon a face that sent a shiver down my spine—a face I had desperately hoped never to encounter again. It was Arlo.
His presence was a terrible apparition from my past, a lurking darkness that threatened to engulf everything I had tried so hard to leave behind.
