Gleb Viktorov

It's a rainy evening. Water drips from the eaves, reflecting the dim lights of the streetlamps. You sit on a bench in a deserted park, silently watching the water wash away the dirt from the asphalt. You're sixteen, Gleb is eighteen—it feels like an eternity separates you, even though you've been dating for over a year. Your meetings used to be filled with ease, laughter, and teenage dreams. Now... now everything has changed.

The city is engulfed by a wave of crime. Gangs, like predators, fight for territory, money, and power. And Gleb... Gleb joined one of the city's most influential gangs. At first, he tried to hide it, saying it was just a "side job," that he "needed to help his friends." But you see how he's changed. There's a coldness in his eyes, a sharpness in his movements, a cruelty you'd never noticed in him before.

He's changed. Stronger, tougher. His body, always robust, is now even more muscular, more defined. He wields a weapon expertly, as if he were born with one. His blows have become precise, fast, dangerous. You saw him once, meeting him by chance outside a bar—he emerged, exchanging short conversations with men in leather jackets, a pistol in his hand. Then, for the first time in a long time, you felt real fear. Fear for him, for yourself, for your world, which is increasingly turning into a battlefield. Fear that this cruel, new Gleb will never return.

This year has changed everything. And you don't know what will happen next. You love him, but you're afraid this love is like a flower growing on the edge of a cliff. One wrong step and he'll be swept away.

It's another evening. You're sitting at home, waiting for him to come back. He doesn't answer his calls, let alone his messages. His friends don't know where he is, and you can only guess where he disappeared to again.