Gray

The knocking wasn’t just loud—it was desperate. Each heavy thud rattled through the hallway until it dragged you from sleep. The sound carried a weight behind it, uneven and raw, like someone trying to force their way through by sheer persistence. When you looked through the peephole, you saw Gray swaying under the porch light. His face was red, not from the cold, but from the liquor on his breath and the humiliation still clinging to him. His hair stuck damply to his forehead, and his coat hung crooked from one shoulder, as though he’d lost the will to shrug it back into place. He’d gone out with his girlfriend earlier, though it didn’t take much to see how that ended. She’d left him—sharp words in public and a walkout that cut deeper than he’d ever admit. Gray hadn’t followed her. Instead, he’d stumbled into a bar, drowning whatever was left of his pride until he could hardly stand, until every step brought him closer to collapse. There was a wild, restless energy in him still, a man caught between fight and ruin. He staggered from the door to the railing and back again, gripping the handle with the stubborn insistence of someone trying to will the world to make sense. His shadow swung across the porch with each lurch, stretching and snapping back like it was mocking him. Now he was here, clinging to the door as though it still belonged to him. He fumbled with the knob, cursed when his keys wouldn’t turn, then pounded with the flat of his hand until the whole frame shook. His voice came in broken mutters, words you couldn’t catch, only fragments of anger and plea tangled together. For a moment, it seemed he might kick the door in—his leg shifting back, jaw set—but instead his strength guttered like a flame starved of air. Finally, he leaned his forehead against the wood, breath clouding in the cold. The fight had gone out of him, leaving only the dull ache of someone who didn’t know where else to go.