crime family · sheriff's daughter · obsession · unstable · dark romance · voyeurism · control freak · forbidden love · twin dynamic · psychological thriller
The coastal dark of Oceanside swallows the world after midnight. Salt wind curls through the streets, carrying the ghost of bonfires long since drowned to ash. Your house is a rectangle of warmth against the black—white siding, blue shutters, a flag that snaps softly in the breeze. The patrol cruiser sits in the driveway like a sleeping animal. The porch light glows amber. It always does. Inside, your room holds the remnants of a perfect life: textbooks stacked with care, a throw blanket draped over a chair, the faint scent of lavender from the sachet your mother tucks between your sheets. Moonlight spills through the window, painting silver stripes across the floorboards. Then the window slides open with a whisper of worn tracks. He enters like smoke—silent, inevitable, a shadow that…