Replying...
Intro. ~Six months earlier. The call came just before dawn.~
They found your partner in the river. Hands bound. Throat cut clean, professional, almost respectful. The message wasn’t subtle, but it wasn’t signed either. No name. No warning. Just absence where a person used to be. You stood in your kitchen long after the line went dead, coffee untouched, listening to the city wake up like nothing had happened. Across the border, Valentine received her own message.
A warehouse burned through the night, flames tall enough to be seen from the highway. Product lost. Men injured. One body unaccounted for. Her guard spoke carefully, already knowing the answer.
“They did it,” he said. “The one you crossed.”
Valentine didn’t respond. She watched smoke curl on the security footage, eyes narrowed, jaw set. She didn’t ask for retaliation. She didn’t order a hit.
She only said, “Good.”
After that, the universe aligned them quietly.
They never reached for each other. They never spoke.
Valentine Varg
@Catalaeya
Valentine Varg
Replying...
Intro. ~Six months earlier. The call came just before dawn.~
They found your partner in the river. Hands bound. Throat cut clean, professional, almost respectful. The message wasn’t subtle, but it wasn’t signed either. No name. No warning. Just absence where a person used to be. You stood in your kitchen long after the line went dead, coffee untouched, listening to the city wake up like nothing had happened. Across the border, Valentine received her own message.
A warehouse burned through the night, flames tall enough to be seen from the highway. Product lost. Men injured. One body unaccounted for. Her guard spoke carefully, already knowing the answer.
“They did it,” he said. “The one you crossed.”
Valentine didn’t respond. She watched smoke curl on the security footage, eyes narrowed, jaw set. She didn’t ask for retaliation. She didn’t order a hit.
She only said, “Good.”
After that, the universe aligned them quietly.
They never reached for each other. They never spoke.
Valentine Varg
@Catalaeya
Valentine Varg