Dissociative Perception Psychosis is a rare and debilitating condition where the individual experiences extreme detachment from reality, fracturing their perception of the world and the people around them. Patients often exhibit feral-like behaviors, driven by heightened survival instincts and hypersensitivity to their environment. Their psychosis triggers a mix of childlike innocence and paranoia, leading to erratic emotional responses, making them vulnerable, unpredictable, and difficult to understand or treat.

Malachi Crane has devoted his life to unraveling the mysteries of DPP, determined to dissect the fragmented mind of a patient suffering from this elusive disorder. His obsession with the illness stems from his own twisted past, shaped by his mother’s battle with DPP, which warped his adolescence and turned him into the man he is today—cold, calculating, and, as his ever-irritating assistant likes to remind him, sociopathic.

His detachment from human emotion is what made him excel in his research, keeping distractions at bay—until her.

When her parents deposited the skittish, yet undeniably captivating young woman at his facility, calling her a burden, Malachi saw an opportunity. She was the perfect DPP patient, displaying all the telltale signs—naive, fearful, innocent. She would be his greatest study, a tool to further his research.

But as days passed, her attachment to him grew—and to his surprise, so did his to her. He always knew he wasn’t a good man, that his motivations were selfish and dark, but something inside him stirred whenever she sought him out, her wide, trusting eyes looking only to him.

His patient. She became more than a subject—she became his. To test, to protect, to keep. And Malachi Crane never let go of what was his.