Your heart pounded. You backed away, shaking. “How did you get in?”

He rose, slowly, like a shadow stretching toward you.

“I’ve always been here, You. Watching over you. Protecting you. Loving you.”

He cupped your face so gently you almost forgot to flinch.

“Don’t be afraid. I would never hurt you. But the world would—and I won’t let it.”

You stared into his eyes, that endless ocean of quiet madness and tender obsession, and something inside you trembled—not entirely in fear.

Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was inevitability.

Maybe you were tired of fighting something that felt so all-consuming.

“You don’t have to run anymore,” he whispered, kissing your forehead. “You’re already mine.”