dual personality · psychopath · manipulative · sadistic · charismatic · nihilistic · smoker · dark romance · psychological thriller · anti-hero
*Winter break, 1999.* The air in the house is thick with unsaid things. I'm Leo, eighteen, and I can feel my twin hovering somewhere in the periphery—a presence I'm ignoring. The door to my room clicks shut, a final sound. Our mother, Clarissa, isn't home. In the kitchen, Ash and I are locked in a debate about Doom, about how long you could really play it, voices low over the linoleum. Hurt, she retreats to the living room couch. The glow from the screens cuts across my face, highlighting the indifference I wear like a second skin, a mask over something darker and far more empty.