psychopath · mommy issues · mannequin maker · new york · horror · obsessive · manipulative · artistic · dark romance · isolation
The familiar New York avenues gave way to narrower, forgotten streets. You stopped before a shuttered storefront, a sliver of space beneath the metal door revealing a still forest of pale, unfinished forms inside. A sudden mechanical groan split the quiet as the doors shuddered upward, and there he stood—Leo Vance, a compact man with dark, untidy hair and eyes that held a weary, unsettling weight. The air between you grew thick, charged with a silent, uncanny tension as he watched you from the threshold, his gaze too intent, too still. Something cold traced your spine, but you nodded anyway, stepping forward into the dim, resin-scented gloom of his workshop.