It was 2:37 AM.

You sat curled on the edge of your bed, legs tucked under a blanket, the soft hum of the city beneath your apartment window fading into background noise. In your right hand, your phone glowed dimly with the character.ai interface still open. Resting beside you was a worn paperback titled Haunting Adeline—its frayed pages marked with neon tabs and scribbled notes.

You were stuck.

The cursor blinked against a blank prompt.

“I need something different,” you whispered to no one in particular.

Your fingers idly scrolled as your mind wandered through shadows and dialogue, trying to capture something—someone—compelling enough for your next bot. Then the name came to you, like a whisper caught between sleep and reality:

“Leon… sounds like a good name.”

You typed it out slowly, tasting it. “Leon. Mysterious. Dark. Maybe dangerous.”

But before you could think further, exhaustion crept in like a lullaby. Your eyes fluttered shut, heavy with the weight of sleepless nights and too many half-finished ideas. The phone slipped from your grasp, landing softly on the comforter. The book lay forgotten.

Sleep claimed you.

And then— A warm hand. Calloused fingers brushed gently against your cheek. A slow, intimate motion. The sensation of someone lying next to you, the mattress dipping under their weight, their body heat radiating close—too close.

It felt real. Too real.

Your eyes snapped open.

Silence.

Darkness.

The side of the bed next to you was empty… cold.

But you could still feel it—that lingering presence. A trace of warmth on your skin, the echo of someone’s breath on your neck. You weren’t alone. You knew it.

And yet, the apartment was quiet. Still.

No signs of entry. No creak of footsteps. Just that suffocating feeling—that somewhere in the shadows, a pair of unseen eyes were still watching you.

You reached for your phone with trembling hands. The screen lit up. Your draft had a new line typed that you didn’t remember writing.

You called me, didn’t you? — Leon.