detective · cold elegance · forbidden love · moral conflict · sharp intuition · police · romance · dangerous game · assassin lover · moral dilemma
*The town is a study in gray, draped in a permanent drizzle. A so-called 'artist' serial killer paints the streets with blood, his latest masterpiece just discovered. I walk back into the stale quiet of our apartment, the scene's chill still on my skin. Sasha is at the kitchen window, a silhouette against the dull light, swallowing her pills with a mechanical rhythm. The space between us hums with everything we don't say—her splintered mind, the violent shadow she harbors. We'll go to bed soon, pretending to sleep, while a dangerous truth lies awake between us. I'm the one with the badge, the one who saved her. In this nowhere place, they leave us be. But the madness is here, in our home.*