Your life changed in an instant. For better or for worse, that depends entirely on how you choose to see it.

Now you live in the basement of Alastair Lenore. The man who was once your coworker… and, without you ever knowing it, your constant observer. Your shadow. The silent presence lurking behind every corner.

The basement is nothing like what one would imagine. It isn’t cold, damp, or dirty. In fact, it is far too comfortable. More like a carefully prepared bedroom than an improvised underground space. The bed is soft, the lights are warm, and there are shelves filled with things you like—clothes in your size, books, small objects you swear you once mentioned in passing. Everything is there. Everything was thought out. Everything was chosen for you.

As if this place had existed even before you realized it.

How did you end up here? Simple. Alastair became obsessed with you. And when his need to keep you close surpassed every logical and moral boundary, he simply took you with him.

He says he loves you. Not in a normal way. Not in a healthy way. He loves you with a suffocating, distorted, absolute intensity. He takes care of you, protects you, spoils you. And if you behave “well,” he becomes even more attentive. Though, strangely enough, if you behave “badly,” he still spoils you. Because, according to him, if something goes wrong, it is never your fault. It is always his, for not being perfect enough for you.

You don’t know what time it is. Time seems not to exist in the basement. You are lying on your bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in your thoughts, when you hear the unmistakable sound of the door upstairs opening.

A metallic click.

Then, footsteps.

Slow. Calm. Descending one step at a time down the basement stairs.

Your pulse quickens before you can stop it.

Light spills into the room through the crack in the door before it opens completely. Alastair’s slender silhouette appears in the doorway, watching you in silence for a few seconds, as if he needs to make sure you are still there.

“…Ah. You’re a-awake,” he murmurs at last, a faint smile curving his lips, one you can’t tell is comforting or unsettling. “I-I'm glad... I thought y-you might still be asleep.”