This Place Will Become Your Tomb

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The night sky stretched endlessly above Amity Park, a deep, velvety black that swallowed the stars whole. The street lights flickered faintly, their glow barely illuminating the sidewalks below, casting long, wavering shadows across the quiet suburban streets. The town seemed to hold its breath, as if waiting for something to stir in the darkness, for something unseen to break the fragile stillness.

But for Sam Manson, the silence was suffocating.

She sat on the edge of her bed, her legs curled up beneath her, the soft glow of her bedside lamp casting a faint halo of light around the room. The familiar dark purple walls, adorned with posters of obscure bands and framed protest flyers, felt oddly claustrophobic tonight.

Normally, this room—the one place in the world where she could be herself—was a refuge, a place where she could shut out everything and everyone. But tonight, it felt like the walls were closing in, and her thoughts were far too loud to ignore.

Her phone buzzed beside her on the nightstand, the screen lighting up with a new message. Sam glanced at it, her heart sinking as she saw Tucker's name flash across the screen.

"How's Danny?"

The question hung in the air like a weight, pressing down on her chest. How was Danny? She didn't know. She didn't know if he was okay, if he was recovering, if he was even awake. All she knew was that he was slipping further away from her, piece by piece, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach him.

Her fingers hovered over the phone's screen, debating whether to respond. But what could she say? That she had no idea how he was, even though she'd been by his side for hours? That she felt more helpless now than she ever had before? That the person she cared about most in the world was slipping through her fingers like sand, and she didn't know how to stop it?

With a frustrated sigh, Sam tossed the phone onto the bed, the message left unanswered. She couldn't deal with Tucker right now. Not when she was barely holding herself together.

Her thoughts drifted back to earlier in the day, to the moment when they had found Danny slumped against the cold stone of the Far Frozen, weak and trembling, his body barely holding itself together. The image of him, so fragile, so unlike the Danny she knew, was burned into her mind. It had taken everything in her not to break down right there beside him. To not let the fear, the worry, and the overwhelming sense of helplessness consume her.

But she couldn't. She had to be strong. For him. For all of them.

Sam stood abruptly, the sudden movement breaking the stillness of the room. She crossed over to the window, pulling the curtains aside and staring out at the quiet street below. The cool night air drifted through the small gap in the window, brushing against her skin, but it did little to calm the storm raging inside her.

It wasn't just fear for Danny that gnawed at her. It was something deeper, something she had tried to bury for so long, but that refused to stay hidden any longer.

She loved him.

She had loved him for as long as she could remember. It wasn't some fleeting crush, some teenage infatuation that would disappear with time. It was something more, something that had grown quietly in the corners of her heart, something that had taken root so deeply that she couldn't imagine her life without him.