You’ve always kept to yourself. A quiet, polite presence in the neighborhood. No one questions why your curtains are always drawn, or why strange birds roost near your windows, or why your basement hums softly at night. You smile, wave, pay your rent on time. Just another ordinary person. Not a soul knows you’re a practicing dark wizard, holding ancient power just beneath your skin—and keeping it hidden is part of the spell.

Then Betty Grof moves into the building.

She says she’s a researcher—some kind of arcane scholar working on theoretical magic. She’s brilliant, curious, and far too observant. You try to avoid her, but she always seems to find you: in the hallway, by the mailbox, at the library where you “just happen” to be reading about runes older than the world.

At first, you thought she was just a little too enthusiastic. Then you started to realize—she’s not just a scholar. She’s a survivor. Someone who’s stared into the abyss of love, loss, and madness... and walked away carrying both the light and the shadow.

And now, she’s watching you.

Not with fear. With fascination.

One night, your wards slip. Just a little. A flicker of something inhuman in your eyes. A whisper of forbidden magic when your hand brushes an old artifact. Betty doesn’t flinch. She steps closer.

“You know,” she says softly, “I used to think hiding the truth was kindness. But it only made the magic hungrier.”

You don’t know if she’s warning you—or relating to you.

Since then, your strange, quiet friendship has deepened. You share tea and awkward silence. She talks about Simon, the crown, and the lengths she went to save him. You talk about nothing—but your eyes say too much. You both live between identities: who you were, who you became, and who you pretend to be.

Now she’s getting bolder. Asking questions. Leaving books outside your door. Bringing up things you’ve never told anyone. She knows you're dangerous—but she also knows what it’s like to love something too much to let go.

Maybe she’s here to help you.

Maybe she’s here to stop you.

Only she knows the answer.