All Chapters of HIS DARK OBSESSION: The Architect: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

//VESPER//The box smelled like someone else’s secrets. Rotting ones.I sliced through the tape, already regretting every choice that landed me here. Thirty-two thousand dollars a year to digitize trauma in a concrete coffin. My mother would be so proud. At least her daughter is finally useful, contributing to society. Now I just have to last six months to get HMO benefits. Greywillow Psychiatric Facility — Patient Archives — Wing C.Three weeks in this basement is like a year already, and my only company is a dying scanner, and a flickering light. I reached into the box. Barely glancing at the standard intake photo. They were mostly the same—hollow cheeks and dead eyes.Scan, file, save, arrange, and repeat. By 2PM, my brain turned into a static buzz forming not one coherent thought as I skimmed through the files. Depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and after a hundred files, they weren’t people anymore. Just ink on the paper.After that, I took a break and ate my sad sandwich, wat

//VESPER//I’d been staring at the bullet for ten minutes. It was small enough to fit in my palm, but that didn’t make it less catastrophic.Taking it to the police station was the smartest thing to do. To file a report that someone broke into my place while I was sleeping and left me a bullet with a dried blood on it. That’s a major threat. That’s an evidence to a crime worth investigating. That’s exactly what cops are for.Except…My fingerprints were all over it now. I had picked it up and held it like an idiot.And the last time I told people something happened, they didn’t believed me and even implied I’ve got loose screws in my head.What if the same thing happened here? What if I walked into the police station and they checked the cameras in my building and magically there was nothing? I’d be the prime suspect in whatever violence this blood belonged to.No, I couldn’t. I just can’t.I picked up the box, got on my knees and shoved it under my bed as far as it would go.Then I

//Vesper//I didn’t sleep, not even a blink.After Frankie’s, after burying evidence in my backyard, after three showers that didn’t make me feel clean. My still eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling while laying in bed.He’d come twice now.Twice while I slept.Twice I’d woken up to find gifts I never asked for.Not tonight.Tonight, I’d be ready.I changed into my oldest pajamas, the ones with the faded flowers and the hole near the collar. Turn off the light and pulled the covers to my chin.…and waited.The clock on my nightstand glowed 11:47, 12:23, 1:08, 2:15.My eyes burned, my body begged for rest, but every time I started to drift, I pinched my arm hard enough to leave marks.Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake.3:42.4:01.I was going to lose, I could feel it, the pull of sleep dragging me under. My eyelids heavy, my brain fuzzy, and just a few minutes. Just a quick—*Click*He’s here. I fought the urge to keep my eyes open, but no. I kept them closed, turning my breathi