Chapter 0 - Trailer
Chapter 0 – Trailer
Nate laughed too loud.
Too sharp. Too fake.
His mates were pressed in around him, shoulders knocking, voices barking in his ears. Mocking. Shouting over each other. Jeering. Laughing. It all swirled together until he couldn’t tell one from the next.
“You going soft, mate?”
The bass slammed into him. Again. Again. Again.
His heart matched it — too fast, too hard — drumming in his ears until it drowned everything else out.
Breathe.
He couldn’t.
Sweat crawled down his spine. His fingers flexed, furiously dug into his hair, tugged once, hard, like it might force him to focus. It didn’t.
Get a grip. Stay cool. Unbothered. Stay you.
Faces blurred. Mouths moved. Words lost shape. Laughter stretched and warped until it sounded crueler than before. Smiles were creepier, the walls felt like they were closing in on him.
And then — her.
Emily.
Her shocked little laugh.
That soft, stupid smile she didn’t know how to hide.
So open. So unaware.
The drunk bloke’s hands slid where they shouldn’t — lingering, greedy, wrong.
Something inside Nate snapped tight.
Don’t care. Don’t care. Don’t care.
He swore under his breath, jaw clenched, pulse screaming. What the hell is wrong with you?
“She's a joke, mate. Proper loser.”
The words hit him late, muffled, like he was underwater. He laughed on instinct, cruel and automatic, the sound ripping out of him while his chest burned.
Too hot. Too loud. Too close.
Her face flashed again — smiling up at the masked stranger, eyes bright, trusting.
The thought made his stomach twist, panic spiking sharp and sudden, he wanted to puke.
This isn’t you. This isn’t happening.
He moved without thinking. Slipped back. Vanished. Always disappearing before anyone noticed. Before anyone asked where he’d gone. Before he lost it completely.
One breath. Then another.
Shallow. Fast. Useless.
The music roared. The crowd surged. His heartbeat battered against his ribs like it wanted out.
And somewhere in the chaos, Nate realised the worst part wasn’t the risk.
It was that he cared.
His hands shook as he pulled the balaclava over his head.
And for the first time all night, he could finally breathe.
