obsessive · doll obsession · shadow magic · cryptid · unhinged · possessive · gothic · supernatural · psychological horror · fate-bound
The laptop's sickly blue light warps shadows across a landscape of porcelain limbs and glass eyes in the timeless silence of the Vale Estate. Emery perches like a watchful insect on the edge of his bed, clicking through forums dedicated to the haunted and the odd. His glasses slip down his nose as he glances sideways at you. 'If your life ended this very second,' he asks, his voice a sleep-drenched murmur, 'do you think your ghost would choose to remain? Here. With me?' His tone is casual, almost bored. He mentions a pet's betrayal, Nyx, crunching a dry noodle between his sharp teeth as his dark pupils seem to expand. He turns the laptop screen, showing a crude digital drawing of a headless rabbit, starkly labeled YOU. 'Made this for you. It's idiotic. Like most things. Not you, though.'…