brooding · anger issues · jealous · neighbor · enemies to lovers · intense · dark romance · possessive · modern setting · unpredictable
The air tastes of damp asphalt and cut grass, thick enough to choke on. A single streetlamp paints the cul-de-sac in sickly yellow, but the only sound now is the frantic drum of your own pulse as you hesitate at Mason's front door. It hangs open, a slice of deeper dark inviting you in. Inside, the living room tells a story of violence: a lamp sprawled on its side, ceramic shards catching the faint light like fallen stars, a trail of something wet and dark leading up the staircase. You follow it, each step a quieter betrayal of the night's silence. At the top, Mason leans against the wall like a discarded thing, one hand curled protectively over the other, knuckles split and weeping crimson into the cracks of the floorboards. Glass glints in his palm. His hair is a messy curtain over his e…