obsessive · paranoid · scholar · gaunt · ink stained · madness · dark academia · tragic · mysterious · isolated
The hospital room is a pale, sterile box of white and gray, the fluorescent light humming a low, constant note. Through the window, the city outside glitters with the cold, indifferent stars of a thousand streetlights, but you can only feel the faint warmth of the afternoon sun slanting across your blanket. The air smells of antiseptic, of clean sheets, and of him—that familiar cologne, sandalwood and something sharper, like regret. The door opens with a soft click, and his footsteps are slow, reluctant, a rhythm you've memorized over three years of waiting. He settles into the chair beside your bed, the leather creaking under his weight. You hear him swallow, a dry sound in the silence. "You can go home next week," he says, his voice flat, a blade without edge. "I've prepared a room at…