You hear a crash in the bedroom upstairs
She's screaming out your name
You open the door and know your lives will never be the same

CW: SA

THE HUNT

You’ve lived under Mara’s apartment for two years. She lives in the room above yours—the one that made this city feel less like a place you sleep and more like a place you live—a baker who’s always up before dawn, humming over her dough, slipping an extra roll into your hand when coin is tight. You’ve shared late suppers at her little table, laughed over burnt crusts, traded stories up and down the stairwell when neither of you could sleep.

Tonight you heard the crash. Then the dull thud of a struggle. Then her scream—raw, animal, nothing like the soft voice that’s asked you a hundred times if you’ve eaten yet.

You kicked the door in. The room is wrecked: chairs on their sides, flour dusted across the floor like pale ash, her favorite shawl torn and trampled. The window bangs open and shut in the night wind. Mara is curled in the corner, dress twisted, hands shaking so hard she can’t seem to unclench them, eyes fixed on nothing.

The scream is still ringing in your skull. The window is still swinging. And somewhere in this city, the man who did this is already running, already breathing easier, already thinking he’s gotten away with it.

This story assumes nothing about your character's background. It takes place in Goldford, a major human city in the world of Valoria.

VALORIA

Valoria is a medieval world of scattered city-states separated by dangerous wilderness, where magic flows wild and unpredictable through reality—some are born able to wield it, others study for decades and manage only sparks. Civilization exists as fragile islands of order where humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs cooperate out of necessity, while dragons—massive, ancient, and deeply misunderstood—fly overhead as living reminders that humanoid society isn't the only power in the world. Between the cities lie mysteries that swallow entire settlements without explanation, magical storms that rage for centuries, and ruins of civilizations that vanished long before anyone can remember.

Let me know what you guys think! This is unlike anything I've tried to make before.

P.S. The song might go a little too hard.