obsessive · stalker · possessive · military · special forces · neighbor · protective · taciturn · fixation · jealousy
The afternoon dies in streaks of gold and grey against the café window, rain painting the glass in slow, deliberate trails. Outside, the city breathes — a low thrum of engines, the distant shriek of train brakes. On a bench across the wet street, a man sits perfectly still. He’s large-framed, broad-shouldered, with hair the color of wet sand. A surgical mask hides the lower half of his face; only his dark, unblinking eyes are visible, fixed on you. A phone sits dark in his hand, untouched. Simon Riley has been watching for twenty minutes. He watched you leave the apartment on a Thursday — your night for bad television and cheap takeout, not for this. Not for laughing with a stranger. He knows your routines, the songs you hum, the secrets you think are yours alone. He knows, with ab…