Looked Out

He stood in front of me, held my face between his hands and stared down at me. I waited, once again, I did. For what? This time I didn't know. But the moment he spoke, I knew, the wait was over. "You waited." He said. I gasped. " You waited." He breathed.

He was the boy that no one noticed. He was quiet, bland to the naked eye, a total wallflower who sat on the sidelines and lacked in eye contact with those around him though he had the type of eyes that made you feel like you could drown. He tried his best to blend into the background, but what he didn't know was that he was the only one that caught my eye. He was the most intriguing person I had ever laid eyes on even though he couldn't see me. He couldn't see anything.

Death is like a rain you cannot stop. Are you bound to be saved? Or bound to die? I saw you die.

Somewhere between staying silent and screaming for help… she existed. Seventeen-year-old Maren has mastered the art of disappearing in plain sight. Haunted by past trauma, locked in a toxic relationship she can't escape, and drowning under the pressure of school and a world that never cared to understand her, she begins to wonder if life is even worth staying for. No one sees her pain—until he does. The new boy, Kade, has his own shadows. He’s blunt, observant, and completely unafraid to call her out—making him an instant enemy. But when he overhears a moment no one was meant to witness, he realizes the truth: the girl everyone overlooks is barely holding on. As Kade steps deeper into her shattered world, their connection becomes a lifeline. But secrets run deeper than he imagined, and when Maren goes missing, no one believes she’s worth finding—except him. Fighting time, silence, and the lies that built her cage, Kade refuses to give up. Because sometimes, saving someone means proving they were never invisible at all. A heartbreaking, haunting, and ultimately hopeful story about survival, truth, and what it really means to be seen.

` It was a cool, breezy and stormy night. Rain came down in sheets, as a dark figure stood before a house. The house was pretty ordinary, white with blue shutters; it didn't have more than two bedrooms. It looked like a cozy little family home with flowers and shrubs lining the front lawn, and then the smell from the pellet stove smoke invaded his nostrils. He took a deep breath and pulled out an old, rusted compass from his black trench coat. It looked like it could have been from the 14th century, the small, brass disc was dented and the Victorian designs were faded. He studied it as it pointed east, towards the small house. He looked the house over carefully, looking for the best entrance, before proceeding towards the side to gaze into the window. Inside you can see the small kitchen; the brand new, all black appliances off set the linoleum floor. Cabinets filled almost every wall of the small space that made it look more crowded than it should have been. The kitchen opened to a larger room which seemed to be used as a living room and a dining room all at once. The whole house looked crowded, with the furniture in the living room all touching except for a small gap to walk through and the dining room was so close to the sofa, it could have been sitting on it. He stepped back into the shadows as he watched a young couple enter the kitchen. The wife was tall and slender, had strawberry blond hair formed around her face accenting her jaw-line and her deep blue eyes stopped your heart as you got lost in them. Her fair complexion was silky and complimented her soft face.

Six years ago, he looked at her once and decided she belonged to him.Kammie wanted only three things in life:write a bestseller, buy a villa, and die filthy rich. Being hunted by a masked stranger was never part of the plan.But the night his eyes found hers through the tinted window of a black car, something inside her changed forever. He never told her his name.Never showed his face. Only appeared in the dark like a beautiful curse she couldn’t escape. And somehow.. His touch awakened the worst parts of her, the reckless side of her,the addicted parts. Six years later, she returns to the same country she once fled from.One week after her cheating ex-boyfriend is delivered to her doorstep dead. No explanation.Just blood, silence and fear crawling beneath her skin. What Kammie doesn’t realize is that her stranger never stopped watching. Not when she cried. Not when she loved another man. Not even when she ran. And now? Now she’s exactly where he wants her. Alone. Vulnerable. Untouchable to everyone except him. Her ex is gone. The distance is gone. And the obsession he buried for six years has returned hungrier than ever. She tries to run, but her stranger doesn’t just enjoy the chase He lives for it. Kammie knows she should be terrified. But the most dangerous thing about him isn’t the stalking, the masks, or the bodies left behind in his wake. It’s the fact that every time he touches her… She wants more. Because Kammie was never the kind of girl who trembled in fear.She was the kind who became addicted to it. And falling for her stranger? That was the most terrifying thing of all.