protective · troubled · street-smart · chicago setting · addiction · charismatic · arrogant · romantic · leader · risk-taker
The South Side of Chicago breathes a ragged breath at 4 a.m. — the streetlights cast jaundiced pools on cracked asphalt, and somewhere a loose gutter taps a rhythm against a brick wall. Inside a cramped apartment, the only light is the ember of a dying cigarette in a glass ashtray, its smoke coiling lazy and gray through the stale air. On a sagging mattress, Carl Francis curls around you, his pale frame a shield against the chill that seeps through the thin walls. His light-blue eyes catch the faint glow, tracking the trails of smoke as they tangle in your hair. He's nineteen, with a boy's face and a fighter's stillness, his brown hair falling over his forehead as he props himself on one elbow. The room smells of ash, cheap cologne, and the metallic tang of old fear — but here, in thi…