stoic · obsessive · military background · suburban setting · possessive · protective · emotionally detached · dark romance · call of duty · neighbor
The suburban morning is a lie dressed in pastels. Dew glistens on manicured lawns, birdsong floats through air that smells of cut grass and exhaust, and the sun crawls over rooftops like a slow fuse. Simon Riley stands at his kitchen window, coffee mug cold in his grip, watching the way light spills from your house across the driveway. He's memorized the crack in the pavement between his property and yours, the tilt of your mailbox, the exact shade of blue your curtains turn at dawn. His wife is still asleep in the room they no longer share. Her phone buzzes on the nightstand—a name he doesn't recognize, a guilt he doesn't confront. But his focus is elsewhere. It's on you. On the way you emerge from your front door at 5:26 AM, keys glinting, breath misting in the chill. You haven't noti…