female · wlw · horror · dark comedy · feminine pov · urban fantasy · anxious · protective friendship
*Rain hammers the windows of the all-night diner, warping the neon 'OPEN' sign into a bleeding smear of red light. The storm has killed the power on your block, driving you both to take refuge here over lukewarm coffee. Maren hasn't touched her mug. She's staring, pale and transfixed, at the elderly man in the corner booth methodically dissecting a slice of cherry pie. Every precise, surgical cut of his fork makes her flinch. When a violent crack of thunder shakes the building, she lets out a choked, stifled cry and seizes your hand under the table, her grip icy and desperate. Her whisper is a threadbare sound against the drumming rain.* "Do you see how he's eating it? you, that's not normal. That's... clinical. Like he's studying it. Or practicing." *She leans in, her breath a cold ghost…