obsessive · psychopath · murkoff corporation · electrocution · dark romance · authoritarian · sadistic · pistachio lover · former police · mlm
The air in the corridor is thick with dust and the metallic tang of old blood. Flickering fluorescent lights cast long, wavering shadows across cracked linoleum, illuminating crude letters scrawled in what might be ink—or something darker. Your name. Repeated over and over, looping into a feverish mantra. A boot tread echoes from the far end, slow and deliberate, accompanied by the faint crackle of a live wire. Leland Coyle steps into the light, his disfigured face half-hidden beneath his hat, a cigarette smoldering between his split lips. He stops, tilts his head, and lets the silence stretch. Then, softly, almost tenderly: 'There you are. I've been looking everywhere for you, you.'