The rain returned to Pacifica Shores the night the traveler walked back into the tavern.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKgiuyLyBY
It always returned — like the past.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnhOh2VA4Ih
Like ghosts.
He stood there, hands empty, eyes full of storms, as Panna Willowbrook raised her glass.
“Welcome! And that’s as far as you go, stranger.”89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4cYlAIbLpg
“I run this town. I see all. I knew you were coming.”
He smiled bitterly. “You never stopped watching, did you?”
The tavern emptied in seconds.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9mjW3pqE6
Guns clicked in the shadows.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqgYz1EcLUf
And somewhere beneath the thunder… the truth stirred.
“What brings you to my sanctum, traveler?” she purred.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPxniraLfn
“Out with it — or out with your life.”
He stepped forward.
One step.
She didn’t stop him.
He reached into his coat — slowly — and pulled out the burnt, warped silver coin that had once belonged to her father.
She stared at it.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTu5FXp294G
Then at him.
And something in her cracked.
“You should be dead,” she whispered.
“I was,” he said. “You lit the match.”
🩶 The Past Comes Screaming
His voice stayed steady, but pain laced every word.
“I waited for you that night.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWu25AoAEYA
The night we promised to run.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkoT5wTrVz8
I waited at the chapel — until it burned.”
Her eyes flickered — rage, grief, guilt, all tangled in something deeper.
“You don’t know what he did to me,” she hissed.
He nodded. “Then tell me.”
And for the first time, Panna stopped pretending.
🩸 Her Secret
She didn’t just fail to escape.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqejk5sTuK
She was caught.
Her father dragged her back by her hair.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8R3ggWjvbV
Beat her.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvpxuWbCLUT
Tied her to the window.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe8FhsbDmUd
Made her watch the chapel burn.
“I thought you were dead,” she whispered. “I screamed. I begged him. I would’ve taken the fire myself.”
“And the next morning?” he asked.
She looked away.
“The town needed a face.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvBqMmtrYB7
So I smiled.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44RWlbOnd6
I let the monster put me beside him.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7EFJkl13G3
I buried what I loved… and became what I hated.”
She touched her temple. “After he died, I thought I was free… but something stayed with me.”
“You split,” he said quietly. “One side still loved me.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdA2GC0TWfB
The other just wanted to survive.”
🔥 Let It Burn
Suddenly — gunshots.
One of the shadows moved too fast.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNINiTtGqzK
The traveler ducked.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoFmHzvLLFr
The fight erupted.
Panna didn’t flinch. She just… watched.
Two men dropped.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdT5OkjBq2n
The traveler bled.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBdhWcvf1q3
But he still stood.
He turned to her — eyes wild.
“Tell them to stop.”
She tilted her head.
“Do you still believe I’m worth saving?” she asked softly.
He stepped closer, blood trailing behind him.
“I never came here to kill you, Panna.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMTttXMGlsc
I came here to remind you who you were before this town broke you.”
“That girl is gone.”
“Then let her die,” he said. “And walk out of here with me. Not as Panna Willowbrook. Just as… you.”
Silence.
She walked to him — slow, silent.
Took his hand.
And gave the order: “Stand down.”
🌑 No One Leaves?
As they walked through the rain together — wounded, raw, reborn — the townspeople watched.
No one stopped them.
No one dared.
The traveler looked back one last time. At the tavern. At the graves behind the mayor’s house. At the ashes of all they'd lost.
Panna whispered, “No one leaves Pacifica Shores.”
He smiled. “We just did.”
🕯️ Epilogue
A year later, the tavern still stands.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ7mCm9A28O
A new sign hangs above the door: Sanctuary.
Some say it’s cursed.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQvmyDnUChj
Some say the old queen vanished into the woods.
But late at night, when the rain falls gently —89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ916OjPj0xe
You might hear music.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiGVqy2ROZY
Laughter.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5c4bLyDCzc
And two voices whispering behind the bar.
“I burned for you once,” he says.89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpWLvgmo8V
“Then let’s build something new from the ashes,” she answers.
THE END89Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEJgToTXBU
(But no story ever truly ends in Pacifica Shores.)
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