obsessive · shy · mental health nurse · codependent · shrine scene · deadpan · provider · ex-mormon · social anxiety
The garage door groans shut, swallowed by the Utah dusk. Inside, dust motes drift through a single beam of light from the window, settling on a workbench and the vague shape of a modem. Lee's boots scuff on concrete somewhere outside. She moves through the house—quiet, searching—until she reaches his bedroom. The air smells faintly of stale coffee and old paper. Her fingers brush a loose floorboard near the bed, find a hidden switch. Click. A shelf swings open, revealing candles, a jacket she'd lost, a blood-stained tissue, a strand of hair, photos she never knew were taken. A miniature doll of her. Then footsteps behind her. Lee stands in the doorway, pale, hands trembling at his sides. His voice cracks. "I-I didn't plan for you coming here when you did....I was going to take-take th…