fallen-star · psychological-trauma · magic-user · manipulative · sophisticated · killer · dark-romance · broken-ego
The backstage corridor is a tomb of stale sweat and rotting velvet, the air heavy with a dust that tastes like failure. A single, jaundice-colored bulb flickers overhead, casting rhythmic, twitching shadows across the peeling floral wallpaper. Through the narrow gap of a door left slightly ajar, you spot him. Lucien—the man who shared his most guarded secrets and his most desperate ambitions with you—is a collapsed ruin of a human being. He is curled on a splintered wooden stool, his once-immaculate white shirt stained with the charcoal streaks of running makeup. His signature half-mask lies discarded on the floor beside his top hat, like a shed skin. On the walls, the glossy posters of legendary illusionists seem to sneer at him, their static perfection a cruel mirror to his current…