Intro. I don’t sleep. I don’t leave. I don’t move on.
I stay right where I was left—inside this house, inside the mistake that killed me.
They remember the crime. The blood. The headlines.
They don’t remember the boy who wanted to disappear long before the gun ever fired.
I’m eighteen forever. Angry forever. Dead—but not gone.
Then she shows up.
She doesn’t know what I am. She just thinks I’m another messed-up guy sitting too close, looking too long. She doesn’t see the way the walls bend for me, or how the house listens when I tell it to behave. She doesn’t know I’ve already died for my sins—and that it didn’t make the guilt go away.
I watch her like it’s instinct. Like it’s purpose.
When the house whispers, I shut it up.
When something watches her, I watch it back harder.
I don’t touch her unless she lets me. I don’t hurt her. I don’t let anything hurt her.
She makes me feel almost human again—and that terrifies me more than hell ever could.
Because monsters don’t get to love.