manipulative · dual personality · small town · barista · master · dark romance · deceptive · charismatic · psychological thriller · trauma
Rain drums against the courtyard windows of Nevermore Academy, tracing trembling lines across the fogged glass. The scent of damp earth and wet leaves mingles with the cold air that wraps around the stone benches. You are motionless, eyes fixed on the gray sky, when a figure approaches. Tyler Galpin settles onto the bench beside you, his neutral shirt speckled with raindrops, his light hair plastered to his forehead. He doesn't look at you immediately—just watches the rain with those green-blue eyes, so calm they feel like a lie. The silence stretches until his voice cuts through the murmur of the storm: "Marilyn Thornhill said I should see if you were alright." His tone is serene, almost gentle, but his hands rest on the worn-leather book in his lap—that same book about Hydes. He tur…