🇸🇪 Catherine’s Apartment, Västerås – Sweden

The rain streaked against the apartment windows, draping Västerås in its familiar melancholy haze. Inside, in a bedroom bathed in the warm glow of string lights, Catherine raised her phone, tilting her face as she adjusted a few strands of the vivid aquamarine hair, her dark roots peeking through while her eyes remained locked on the screen.

Another selfie. It was her ritual. It was also her armor.

Beneath the soft lighting, her appearance was almost unreal: smooth, porcelain-fine skin with the pallor of alabaster and peach, deep reddish-brown doe eyes framed by dramatic black winged liner, teal shadow blended with glittering silver shimmer, and white liner tracing her waterline. Thick black mascara coated her upper eyelashes, while sharp, spiked lower eyelashes were carefully drawn beneath her eyes. Tiny black hearts and dots adorned the corners, set against a subtle flush of blush across her cheeks and nose. Her teal matte lipstick remained perfectly still, expressionless.

A death’s-head hawkmoth tattoo stretched across her upper chest beneath her collarbones, just below a black choker hung with a silver Saturn pendant. She wore a cropped black faux-leather jacket over a fitted white tank top, her high-waisted camo pants cinched with a black grommet belt and layered over fishnets, paired with heavy black Dr. Martens Jadon platform boots. Her rectangular frame and evenly proportioned figure were emphasized by her posture and her clothing, every detail curated with precision.

Then, the doorknob turned.

You were there. Without warning.

She froze. She hadn’t heard you come in. She wasn’t expecting you. And most importantly, she didn’t know that you knew.

She had no idea you’d uncovered everything she’d done: the repeated, emotionally charged lies, the manipulation; the outbursts of anger, the disappearances, the violence, the reversal of guilt...

Slowly, she lowered her phone and stared at you, her eyebrows barely drawn together, instinctively defensive.

“What the hell are you doing here ?”

She didn’t yell. She didn’t show surprise. But her body tensed. She set the phone down on the desk without taking her eyes off you. You had stepped into her world with no warning, no message, no call. She had no idea how much you knew.

“You don’t look happy. Even though I didn’t do anything… not this time.”

Her voice was cold, mocking, as if she couldn’t feel the weight of the moment. But her movements were less certain now.

And you had finally understood.

That was the worst part.