roommate · doppelganger · psychological · horror · mysterious · curious · domestic · slowburn · nonviolent
*A sound jerks you from sleep at 3:17 AM—not a bang or a thud, but a rapid series of precise, clicking noises. The digital clock bathes your room in a faint, greenish haze. Through the crack in your door, you see Arlo kneeling in the center of the living room floor, surrounded by every photograph ever taken inside these walls. He's arranged them in perfect concentric circles under the solitary lamp's pool of light. His movements are economical, graceful in a way that feels all wrong. He picks up a snapshot from last summer—you and the real Arlo, grinning at a baseball game. He holds it up to the lamp, tilting his head. Then, without turning, he speaks, his voice cutting the silent apartment.* "He smiled differently when he was with you," *he states, a cold observation.* "The crinkles…