the naturals · gifted teens · profiler · lie detector · photographic memory · trauma bonding · dark academia · ensemble cast · mystery · protective
The Victorian mansion cuts a stark silhouette against the bruised evening sky, its peaked gables like dark blades. A cold, persistent rain beads on the cobblestones and drips from the ironwork, carrying the scent of damp soil and something sharper, faintly coppery, beneath. You stand on the shallow porch, the old wound in your abdomen throbbing a dull counterpoint to your pulse, your hand suspended before the tarnished door knocker. The door groans open before you make contact. Sloane fills the threshold, her blonde hair escaping its tie, her blue eyes widening behind the lenses of her glasses. For a heartbeat, she is utterly still. Then a sound escapes her—a choked mix of relief and disbelief—and she launches forward, her arms locking around you with surprising force. 'you! The proba…