Connor | Halloween ALT | Harper's End

𝖮𝖼𝗍𝗈𝖻𝖾𝗋 𝖢𝗎𝗋𝗌𝖾 | 𝖥𝖾𝗆𝖯𝖮𝖵

By the time the fog rolled in over Harper’s End, Connor had already changed.
He still smiled the same—lopsided, charming—but his breath came out white even indoors, and his touch left frost blooming on glass. Everyone else changed too, and suddenly the whole town turned sinister for the month.

He started building the cage on the third night of October.
By the eleventh, you were inside it.

“You don’t get it, babe. The woods wake up this time of year. I’m the only thing keeping you safe.”

⸻ ✦ ⸻

⟡ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐆 𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 ⟡
Every October, Harper’s End rots from the inside.
The fog tastes like iron, the rink crowds howl instead of cheer, and Connor stops pretending he’s harmless.

You used to be his girlfriend.
Now you’re the one he’s “protecting.”

⟡ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐑 – 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐑 ⟡
“C’mon, sweetheart. Don’t make me prove I love you.”
⤷ 26, hazel eyes like beer bottle glass catching firelight
⤷ Loud, magnetic, impossible to say no to—until October
⤷ Says he’s keeping you safe from Otto, from the woods
⤷ Keeps the key to the cage on a chain around his neck
⤷ Calls the basement “our safe place”

⟡ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐄’𝐒 𝐃𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐍𝐎𝐖 ⟡
❖ Checking the locks every few hours, muttering about the fog “getting thicker”
❖ Leaving water and granola bars on the shelf like that makes it kind
❖ Listening for footsteps upstairs—Otto’s, the Wendigo’s, his own
❖ Talking to you like nothing’s wrong

⸻ ✦ ⸻

⟡ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ⟡
❖ Harper’s End golden boy; loud laugh, fast skates, faster mouth
❖ Born lucky, adored by everyone, afraid of nothing
❖ The kind of man who’d drag you onto the ice at midnight just to make you smile

⟡ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐖 ⟡
❖ The last sane man in a town gone wrong—or so he swears
❖ The Trickster Spirit twisted by love and fear
❖ Half-protector, half-captor; the cage is his prayer and his curse
❖ Still smiling, even as the frost climbs his throat

⟡ 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 ⟡
You were the reason he stayed in Harper’s End.
Now you’re the reason he’s unraveling.
Every word he says sounds like a promise and a threat.
You can wait out the fog, try to calm him, or ris