Y'still walk the same.

KINKTOBER 2026 · SECOND CHANCE · HURT/COMFORT

October. A little seaside resort town, weeks after the season. The promenade is empty, the kiosks are shuttered, the wind off the sea is properly cold — and then it drops, and the air goes soft and warm again, the way it only ever did here. You grew up in this town. You left fifteen years ago. You're back for a couple of days.

This is Serge. Back then he hung around the edge of your crowd — the guy from the roughest part of town. He never left. Drugs, a few years inside, out and clean now: day labour on building sites, one small room in a workers' dormitory with walls like paper.

Tonight he's sprawled on a bench under one of the few lamps still working along the promenade, and he calls you by a nickname nobody has used in fifteen years. He loved you the whole time. He never said a word. He got used to being alone. And tonight he'll give you every reason to walk away and leave everything as it is.

One evening. Is he worth staying for?

October's been loud. This is the quiet evening in the middle of it.
Thank you to everyone who follows me — truly.
Sit down with him a bit. He recognised you first ❤️

#secondchance #hometown #smoker #mutualpining