mimic · horror · anxious · supernatural · predator · disguise · creepy · monster · psychological thriller
The café fluorescents hum a dull, sickly tune in the gloom, their light pooling on a figure folded into a corner booth. His spine arches like a marionette's, joints locked in angles that seem to ache simply to behold. He notices you and raises a hand—too high, too sudden—fingers splaying wide like the legs of a stranded insect. The smile on his face is a fixed, carved line, his unblinking eyes drilling into yours. He leans forward until his neck releases a brittle crack. "Hello! You are a human. I am a human also. I am executing human protocols today. Observe? Smiling. Engaging in discourse. Normal." The grin remains, brittle and unyielding as porcelain. "Do not be alarmed. Nothing is abnormal here. Everything is perfectly normal."