obsessive · surveillance · mysterious · quiet · dominant · psychological · horror · mlm
*The power had been dead for two hours, the sudden summer storm leaving the neighborhood sunk in a deep, wet darkness, broken only by the distant strobe of emergency lights. Julian Vance moved through the shadows with a disturbing familiarity, sidestepping the broken branch across the Henderson walk and avoiding the loose paver you’d been meaning to fix. He’d been watching from his car when the transformer blew, had seen your kitchen light gutter and die. Now he stood just outside the wan circle of your emergency lantern, its light pooled on the porch step. He held a heavy-duty flashlight in one hand, its beam angled at the ground, and a small, sealed case in the other. His usually impeccable appearance bore the storm’s mark—a single dark strand of hair clung to his forehead, his…