thinking about your sweet pussy being RESURRECTED KNIGHT! JASON TODD’S good luck charm before going into battle.
being a knight is a tough task for anyone— but for jason? it’s an easy task. and certainly, the fear of dying in battle was one anyone had entertained with… but jason was a rare case of having experienced death— it’s only the fact that he’s a living and walking example of resurrection that he doesn’t fear death anymore. he doesn’t fear bleeding out from stab wounds, he doesn’t fear losing a bought with a fellow knight… no, what he fears most; is not coming home to you.
you gave jason a chance when no one else did— you gave the “skeleton knight” as they call him because he’s a living dead man— a chance… and he never looked at you the same again, in the best way possible.
so, it’s not shocking that when the time comes that he and the fellow knight squadron has to follow king’s orders and fight another kingdom’s knights… he takes the time in the night before to ruin you, ruin your pussy all over again— because he loves you, and the best way he can show that? by letting you ride his cock like this.
“fuck baby, keep bouncing like that.” he whispers in the golden light of your bedroom, the fire place burning golden light onto the walls as the stars in the sky brightened. “fuck you look so gorgeous up ‘here sweetheart.”
you moan louder than you mean to, both hands on his chest, digging into the scars on his chest from both combat and his death itself and looking at him— disheveled as all hell but beautiful in his eyes. “jason- ngh! fuck!”
he nods encouragingly, his left hand running up your chest and cupped your cheek, his right hand remaining on your hip. “just keep going baby… ride me like that…”
“why— why you always gotta leave— fuck!” you whine, knowing the answer but wanting him to say it. “just s-stay… stay here with me, jay…”
he chuckles, meeting your bounce half way and thrusting into your fluttering folds, fucking your pussy rough as he begins to meet you halfway consistently. “because hun… it’s my job… i promise to come back to you, sweetheart.” he whispers, leaning up and pressing a kiss to your trembling lips, feeling you moan against him. “never leaving this pretty lil face alone… ‘promise.”
you couldn’t stop the moans from leaving your lips, your right hand stay on his chest and the other wraps into his black hair, nails digging deep. “jason! oh! fuck! right there— ngh!”
jason didn’t stop the smile from staying on his lips, squeezing your hips. “that’s why i fuck you this good, baby, you’re my good luck charm— haven’t gone a night without fucking you… since the night i met you.”
you tried to bite back but you couldn’t… only moans and his name falling from your mouth— he always made sure you knew he loved him with the way his hips move.
“always gonna make you feel good baby.” he continues to whisper, stroking his thumb on your cheek as his other thumb strokes down and begin to rub over your clitorus in a rapid manner. “forget that ‘m going away… just focus on me, hun. you cum for me and i’ll cum in you… promise.”
and you listened to him… cause jason never broke his promises to you! especially when you feel him cum in you no less than three minutes later!
INSPIRED BY: this post by @/starr-jazz! (haven’t watched a knight of seven kingdoms but dear god, finn bennett in knight armor is doing sum to me)
masterlist is here! click here for more!
ⓘ KENTLUV3R’S WORK. all my fanfics (not the characters) is my very own, coming from my own efforts and my time. do not copy my work, rewrite it, shove it through an ai machine and shit out slop, and don’t repost to wattpad/ao3/c.ai!
pairing: bobby franklin x f!reader x entity!bobby(bb)
wc: 16.3k 🚬
contents/warnings: emotional manipulation, emotional neglect in a past relationship, internalised self-blame, discussions of infidelity, grief and loss, emotional dependency, body horror, strong violence, psychological horror, fear of abandonment, existential/cosmic horror, angstttttt.
notes: Strap in. This one is gonna be uh... fun! (thank you so much for your ongoing support btw, love you guys lots!!!).
📹 better bobby series masterlist.
You move before the thought finishes forming.
Your arms lock around BB from behind, tight around his waist, your hands fisting in the torn fabric of his shirt. Your face presses into the space between his shoulder blades, breathing hard. His body stands rigid under your grip, every muscle locked, the whole of him vibrating with a fury so potent you can feel it sinking into your own body.
He's burning hot for once. Hotter than you've ever felt him before, the cool skin scorched away by whatever he's become in the last however-many-hours, and the heat radiates through his tattered shirt and into your cheek, your palms, and the insides of your wrists where your pulse hammers against his spine.
“Stop,” you plead into his back. Into the ruined fabric, that hum that's pouring off him like radiation. “BB, stop. Don't hurt him.”
Bobby is kicking, his feet scrabbling against the wall behind him, his sneakers leaving black marks on the plaster, hands clawing at BB's wrist with a frantic, oxygen-starved desperation.
His face is darkening now, the veins in his neck standing out like cords. The sounds coming from his throat are wet and crushed. Because they're sounds of a body being denied the thing it needs most, but BB's hand doesn't loosen. It’s a closed system, a vice with a pulse rate of zero.
“He doesn't belong here.” BB's voice is gravel and sub-bass, the human register shredded, the words coming from somewhere beneath his chest. “This is my territory. You’re my—”
“You promised me.”
Your voice breaks on the word. Cracks open, raw and wet, and you press your forehead harder into his back, feeling the vibration of him against your skull and your arms tighten around his waist further. You hold on the way you held on in the meadow, in the nest you’ve shared.
“You promised you wouldn't hurt me, BB. And this—” Your voice drops, shaking. “This would.”
BB goes still.
The fury doesn't leave. You can still feel it, coiled, massive, a thing with its own gravity sitting inside his ribcage, pressing outward against the seams of him. But the stillness settles over it like a lid over a flame. His breathing—the breathing he doesn't need, the breathing that's been coming in ragged, animal bursts—slows. His shoulders drop by a degree, and the heat recedes, fractionally, from scalding to merely unbearable.
His hand opens.
Bobby drops down.
He hits the floor hard, knees first, then hands. Then he's on all fours, gasping, dragging air into his lungs in long, shuddering, tearing inhales that sound like they're being pulled through a crushed straw. The colour rushes back into his face all at once, from white to red, the blood flooding back into tissue that was seconds from permanent damage.
Kat is on the floor beside him in an instant, her hands frantic on his shoulders, his face, checking his throat, his pulse, and she's saying his name (Bobby, Bobby, breathe, look at me, breathe) and Bobby is coughing and gasping, his eyes streaming. The red marks on his throat are already darkening into bruises that will look, by tomorrow, like a handprint painted in purple and black.
You let go of BB, stepping back.
One step. Two. Putting distance between your body and his, and BB turns to face you, his hand lifting instinctively, reaching for your face, any part of you he can touch to confirm you're whole, and you step back again.
His hand halts mid-air.
You've seen BB confused many times before. You've seen him curious, amused, predatory, ancient, tender, wrecked with wanting. But you’ve never seen BB wounded.
His hand hangs in the space between you, reaching for a face that pulled away, and his eyes—still black around the edges, the warmth fighting its way back to the surface through the damage and the fury—registering the distance you've put between your bodies. Reading the enormity of your retreat with a precision that leaves no room for misunderstanding.
You stepped back from him.
You. The person who named him. The person who leaned into his forehead kisses and fell asleep against his cool chest and taught him to dance in a kitchen he built for you. You stepped back, and the distance is a sentence he can read, and the sentence says I don't trust you right now.
His hand drops to his side.
“What the fuck.”
Bobby. On the floor. Coughing, gasping, one hand on his throat and the other braced against the floorboards, and he's staring up at BB with an expression that’s blown past fear and into something else.
Incomprehension, horror, the cognitive whiteout of a man looking at his own face on a body that just tried to kill him.
“What the actual fuck,” Bobby says again, louder this time.
The choking has left his voice shredded, hoarse, each word dragged across damaged vocal cords. He gets to his knees. Kat's hand grips his arm, trying to hold him down, but he shakes her off and gets to his feet, his legs unsteady but his eyes are locked on BB. His jaw pulses, hands fisted at his sides, and he’s staring at his own face and finding a stranger peering back.
“That's me.” Bobby's voice is climbing, ragged with disbelief. “That's—that's my face. That's my face. Why does it have my face?”
BB's jaw tightens. The ancient thing flickers behind his eyes. A flash of contempt, of possessiveness, of the territorial fury that just had Bobby pinned three feet off the ground.
He looks at Bobby the way you'd look at a counterfeit of yourself. A draft. A rough sketch someone made before the final version.
“Answer me!” Bobby surges forward even as Kat scrambles to grab his arm. He shakes her off again without looking. “What are you? What the fuck are you?”
“BB.” You say it before you can stop yourself, before the anger and the hurt and the betrayal can seal your throat. The instinct to name him, to give him the dignity of the identity he let you choose for him, is still there underneath everything else. “His name is BB.”
Bobby stares at you both. The information moves across his face in parts. Confusion first, then processing, then a slow, horrible understanding that reorganises his features into something you've never seen on him. An emotion beyond anger, beyond hurt.
“BB. That BB? What kind of name even is that?” Bobby demands.
BB’s nostrils flare. “It stands for Better Bobby.”
Suffocating silence folds over the room. Kat’s mouth pops open in your peripheral, and you suck in a breath of your own.
“Better Bobby.” The real Bobby laughs. A short, ugly sound that's closer to a bark than a laugh, the kind of noise a person makes when the absurdity of their situation has exceeded their capacity for rational response. He barks out another laugh, then, “Better Bobby. Are you kidding me?”
BB's lip curls, a flash of teeth appearing. “I didn't choose the name for your benefit.”
“No, you just chose my face. You stole my face and my—and my—”
Bobby's gaze cuts to you, then back to BB. The calculation happening behind his eyes is visible, mechanical, each variable slotting into place with an almost audible click, and you can see the exact moment the picture completes because Bobby’s expression doesn't crumble; it hardens. Sets. His jaw locks and his eyes go bright and hot, the hurt underneath the anger so vast it makes the anger look like a puddle on an ocean.
“You've been down here,” Bobby begins, his voice pitching quiet. The dangerous quiet. The one that comes right before the blade. “This whole time. Down here with that.” He points at BB accusingly without looking at him. “With some thing wearing my face. A cheap copy—”
BB snarls. Low. A sound that makes the fractured windows rattle. “I'm not a copy—”
“—while I sat in a basement for seven months talking to a fucking wall, thinking you were dead." Bobby's voice cracks open, choking. "While the cops thought I killed you. The tapes went blank, and your face disappeared, and everyone forgot you existed. I thought I was going crazy because I was the only person left who remembered what you looked like—”
He's shaking. Full body vibration.
His hands tremble at his sides, and his jaw is trembling, and the chain at his throat is shimmering with movement. He’s a man coming apart at every joint because the grief and the fury are feeding each other in a loop that's spinning too fast to control, only amplifying the hurt beneath.
Each word comes out hotter than the last, each breath shorter, and Kat is standing behind him with her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide like she’s never seen Bobby like this because Bobby doesn't do this.
Bobby deflects; he bites. Bobby is the one who turns his pain into a joke or a weapon. But Bobby doesn't break. Except he's breaking. Right now. In a pink house on Level 974, looking at his own face on a monster and the woman he loves standing between them.
“Terrence forgot you.” Bobby's voice cracks on the name. Pure pain that sinks between your ribs. “Terrence. Our best friend, remember him? The only person who believed me when the whole neighbourhood decided I was a killer. He sat with me in bars and told people to back off and drove me home when I couldn't drive, and he was the last one—the last person besides me who still said your name. And then one day I said it, and he looked at me like I was speaking a different language. Like the word didn't mean anything. Like you were—like you'd never—”
He presses the heel of his hand into his eye. The old gesture. The grinding-the-tears-back gesture, brutal and effective. “I watched him forget you. In real time. I said your name and I watched it fall out of his head and he looked at me with this—this pity, like I was talking about someone who never existed. And I wanted to grab him and shake him. Scream she was real, she was REAL, I loved her, and she was real—”
Bobby sucks in a breath so hard his whole body jerks with it.
“Eighteen months,” Bobby croaks out hoarsely, the shaking getting worse. “I nearly died waiting for you. I stopped eating, stopped sleeping. I sat in that basement until my back seized up and I couldn't stand straight, and even then I went back. I kept going back, and you're here. You've been here this whole time. Completely fine. With him. Letting him—wearing my face while he—”
Bobby can't finish the sentence. His hand comes up and covers his mouth, his eyes squeezing shut, and the sound Bobby makes behind his palm is tiny and wrecked. You shouldn't be hearing it, but you can't stop hearing it.
“Bobby—” Kat whispers, reaching for him.
“Don't touch me.” He shakes his head, opening his eyes.
And the expression on his face is the one from the doorway, the one you never saw because you were the one walking away. The expression of a man watching the person he loves leave and being unable to say the thing that would make them stay. Except now it's worse because you didn't leave. You were taken. And what took you gave you a version of him that does all the things he couldn't.
Then, in a dazed whisper, “Did you fuck him?”
The question lands like a grenade. Kat visibly flinches. BB goes rigid in your line of sight, and you feel numb shock slacken your expression.
“Bobby,” Kat says sharply. “This isn’t the time—”
“Did you fuck him?” Bobby's voice cracks, splitting, the words coming out jagged and shaky because he can't control himself. “This thing that stole my face—did you let it touch you? Did you let it—” He gestures at BB, at you, at the space between your bodies. “Were you playing Barbie and Ken down here with my—with a goddamn copy of me while everyone back home thought you were—”
He stops, pressing both hands over his face. His shoulders heave. Once. Twice. The sound he's holding back is massive, and he still won't let it out. He won't. Because he’s Bobby Franklin, and he doesn’t cry in front of people, not even now, not even here, when the girl he spent seven months talking to through concrete is standing five feet away next to the thing that kept her.
“They all thought I killed you. Our neighbours. Our friends. Clark. Strangers on the street. They'd look at me, and I could see it. He did it. The boyfriend did it.” Through his hands. Muffled, reedy, barely controlled. “Months of that. Of carrying that and going to the store every night, sitting on the floor and talking to you because it was the only thing—the only thing—that kept me—” His hands drop. His face is red and wet, ruined. “And you were here. Did you even try to go home?”
The room vibrates. The hum, the tension, the emotional charge of three people and two entities standing in a space too small for the volume of pain it generates.
You stare at Bobby's wrecked face, those bright, glassy eyes, his shaking hands. The man who loved you and couldn't say it and sat on concrete for seven months saying it to a wall instead. The man who grunted at your goodbye. The man who let you stand in a doorway feeling invisible. The man who came through the wall to find you.
“You moved on too,” you say lastly.
Quiet. Cold. The voice the Backrooms gifted to you. The flat, unmoved, survival-voice, the one that doesn't shake because it can't afford to do so.
Bobby's mouth opens. Closes. His features spasm like you’ve struck him despite the distance between you.
“You moved on too, Bobby. You're standing here with her—” you gesture at Kat, who shrinks back— “shielding her with your body, doing all the things you stopped doing for me. And I'm supposed to—what? Feel guilty? Because I survived? Because I found something down here that you couldn't be bothered to give me up there?”
“That's not—”
“You left first.” The words tear out of you before you can weigh them, before the part of you that knows this isn't entirely fair either can catch up to the part of you that’s been carrying this for months and is finally, finally letting it spill. “You left me in that apartment, Bobby. You left me standing in doorways waiting for you to look up. You left me lying next to you in bed wondering if I was still visible. And I don't know why. I've never known why. I loved you more than anything I've ever—”
Your voice fractures, words catching in your windpipe. You press your knuckle against your mouth, mouth wobbling, try your hardest to breathe through it.
“I loved you,” you repeat, steadier, lower. Your anger holding the grief upright the way a spine holds a body. “More than anything. And I didn't need to hear it. I never needed you to say the words, that’s the thing. But I used to feel it. In how you touched me and kissed me and held me. In how you looked at me in the morning. And then you stopped. You just… stopped. And it wasn't sudden. It was slow. So slow I didn't even notice it happening until I was already standing in it. This—this absence. Where you used to be. And I tried to talk to you about it, and you said don't be dramatic, and we're fine. I tried again, and you turned up the TV. I stood there in the kitchen watching the back of your head, and I thought—”
You choke on the words. Your eyes burn, but the tears won't come because the anger has dried them at the source.
“I thought maybe this is what love becomes. Maybe this is normal. Maybe I'm asking for too much. And I made myself smaller and smaller and smaller to fit inside whatever you were still willing to give me, and it was never enough. I didn't know why and you wouldn't tell me—”
“I was scared.” Bobby. Raw. Stripped to the bone. “I was so scared of how much I—”
“I don't care.” Flat. Final. Your voice hardens despite the thickness of your voice. “I don't care that you were scared. I was scared too. I was scared every single day that you were going to wake up and decide you didn't want me anymore and instead of telling me that. Instead of saying I'm terrified and I don't know how to love you without losing myself… you just stopped. You made me feel so alone. I used to talk to the walls at Clark's store because the walls were better company than you were.”
You suck in a ragged breath. It shakes on the way in, steadies on the way out. Bobby’s peering at you wide-eyed, his mouth parted, tension between you thrumming. You exhale, chuckling shakily, pained.
“And the worst part, Bobby?” you pose, not waiting for a response. “The worst part is it took me disappearing for you to care. It took me falling through a wall and vanishing from the face of the earth for you to sit down and say the things you should have said when I was standing right in front of you. You had me. I was right there. Every day. For years. And you couldn't be brave enough to tell me you loved me or hold me like you needed me. But the second I'm gone—the second you can't have me anymore—suddenly you're on a concrete floor pouring your heart out to a wall. Suddenly you remember how to feel.”
Bobby flinches. Full body, his blue eyes bright and shining. Like you've hit him again.
“And you want to know the thing that really kills me?” Your voice is shaking now, the anger fracturing, the grief bleeding through the cracks again. “I was working the late shift alone. In that basement. Alone, Bobby. Because you stopped coming. You used to come keep me company, and you stopped. I was down there by myself, sorting inventory, and that's where it happened. That's where the wall took me. And if you'd been there… if you'd just walked through that door one more time, if you'd come to the store instead of staying on that couch…”
You shake your head, glancing down. BB jerks, like he’s fighting an urge to reach for you, to comfort you somehow. “I wouldn't have been alone when it happened,” you go on, lifting your head again. “I might not have been standing in front of that wall at all. You want to know who's to blame for me being here? It's not the Backrooms. It's not BB. It's the fact that the man I loved couldn't be bothered to keep me company like he used to.”
The silence that follows is absolute. Suffocating. The hum drops to its lowest register.
Bobby stares at you. His face is open in a way you've never seen before. No armour, no grin, no deflection. Just Bobby. The raw, messy human underneath all the performance. And the expression on that face is not anger. It's devastation.
Because he’s just heard the exact truth he's been telling himself for eighteen months spoken aloud by the person he failed, confirmed, verified, stamped and sealed.
Kat stands behind him, her arms heavy at her sides, face tight with an attempt to hold her composure. She’s just learned the full dimensions of the wound she's been dressing for over a year and finally understands it goes deeper than she knew.
BB watches you with an expression you can't read. His black-edged eyes roam over your face, cataloguing the anger, the grief, the terrible release of words held back for so long. His hand twitches at his side again. The instinct—to reach, to touch, to soothe—still running underneath the barrier you imposed.
“Come with me,” BB urges, his words low. His hand lifts again, reaching for your elbow. “You don't have to stay here. Let me take you—”
“Don't touch me.”
BB's hand freezes midair.
“You're no better.”
You watch the impact of your words jolt through him. The way BB’s whole body registers it, a flinch that travels from his face through his shoulders to his hands. He absorbs it the way Entity X absorbs damage, except this doesn't regenerate. This is a cut that stays.
“You—” BB starts, his brows furrowing. His confusion is genuine, nothing performed in it. There’s no curious tilt he does when encountering new concepts, but real confusion, the bewildered processing of a being trying to understand what went wrong.
“Did you know?” you bite out.
You ask it quietly, peering at his face. Bobby's face. The face that heard you through a wall and chose to want you, that built you a kitchen and kissed your forehead and promised you things and held you while you cried.
“Did you know Bobby was out there? For months. Did you know he was looking for me? Sitting in that basement, talking through the wall. Did you hear him, BB? Did you hear him saying he loved me while you were holding me and telling me it was all his fault?”
BB's expression goes smooth.
The warmth and confusion drain, followed by wounded bewilderment. What's left is closed. Perfectly, terribly closed. The face flattening into something that's neither Bobby nor BB but something older, something that predates both of them.
You laugh. A short, bitter sound, no joy in it.
“Yeah,” you exhale. Shaking now, because anger can't hold your grief forever, the frame is buckling, and you can feel the tears starting to press against the backs of your eyes like a tide against a wall. “That's exactly what I thought.”
The room is quiet.
Bobby is on the floor with Kat's hand on his shoulder and bruises darkening on his throat. BB stands in front of you with a closed-off face and a frozen hand, the ruins of every tender moment you've shared settling around him like a ring of ash. Mr Kitty lingers in the corner, his dark shape motionless, his blank face oriented toward the centre of the room with the patient, unhurried attention.
“I need time,” you say, your voice thin. “I need… to think. I can't—I can't be in this room right now.”
You spin on your heels, walking toward the staircase, your bare feet on the floorboards. You clutch your notebook against your chest, your shoulders set in a rigid line, your chin up, and your eyes burning, but you don’t cry.
You will not cry. You’ll walk through this door and find a corner of this level that doesn't contain Bobby or BB or Kat or anyone else, and you’ll sit down and breathe.
You’ll figure out what is left of you underneath all of this wreckage.
BB moves after you. You hear it more so than see it. The shift in air pressure, the displacement, his body orienting toward yours the way it always does, the magnetic pull that has governed his movements since the first day. His footstep on the floorboard behind you.
Mr. Kitty steps into his path.
The tall dark shape moves from the corner to the centre of the room in a single fluid motion, interposing itself between BB and the door, between BB and you. Mr Kitty doesn't speak. Simply stands there. Immense, faceless, filling the doorway with the calm, absolute certainty that informs everyone, silently, that no one is getting past him.
BB snarls.
The sound fills the room, saturating it. Harsh, emotional, stripped of the controlled fury from earlier. This isn't the predator defending his territory. But something hurt and desperate, unable to reach the only thing that makes the hurt bearable, and the snarl carries all of it—the confusion, the desperation, the agony of watching you walk away from him and being told he doesn’t get to follow.
“Get out of my way.”
BB's voice is low. Vibrating. The hum in the walls responding to him, the floorboards creaking around you, the cracked windows rattling in their frames. The power coming off him is palpable. A pressure change, a density in the air, the room bending around the force of an entity that’s existed for longer than these walls have stood.
Mr. Kitty doesn't move.
The house begins to vibrate.
A deep, foundational tremor that runs through the floor and up through the walls and into the ceiling. The scones on the counter rattle. A crack appears in the plaster above the kitchen doorway. Two forces pressing against each other. BB's vast, ancient fury and Mr. Kitty's quiet, absolute sovereignty over this level, this house, this ground.
Mr. Kitty may not be as old. May not carry the same raw, limitless power that BB channels from the Backrooms itself, but Level 974 is his. The pink walls and the Hello Kitty figurines and the golden light.
His domain, his territory, his rules.
And in this space, on this ground, Mr Kitty doesn’t yield.
The vibration deepens. The figurines on the shelf chatter against each other. Bobby grabs Kat and pulls her toward the corner, away from the two entities locked in their silent standoff.
“Enough.”
Your voice. From the doorway, looking over your shoulder at the room. At BB, rigid and his mouth snarling, at Mr Kitty, immovable and calm, at the house shaking around them.
“Stop it. Both of you. Right now.”
BB's eyes are black, wild, fixed on Mr. Kitty's faceless head with a fury that has nowhere to go.
You look at BB.
It's the look that stops him. Your eyes on him, meeting his, and the expression in them—cold, hurt, closed, the warmth he's spent months earning withdrawn behind a wall he can't charm or claw his way through. You look at him the way you looked at Bobby in Santa Clara, in the doorway, in the kitchen, during all those conversations he refused to have.
“Leave me alone,” you say coldly. “I mean it, BB. Leave me alone.”
The vibration cuts out.
The house settles around you into eerie silence, the figurines stilling. The crack in the plaster stays but doesn't spread further.
BB's snarl dies in his throat, not released but swallowed, pushed down into whatever deep place he stores the things he can't process. His fury collapses inward, his features rearranging not into Bobby's easy mask but into something fragile and deeply, fundamentally lost.
Because he’s just been told by the only person who matters to him that he’s not wanted here.
Mr. Kitty steps aside.
You walk through the door, up the stairs that don’t make a single creak, and don’t look back.
BB does not follow.
The bedroom is pink.
Every surface of it. The walls, the ceiling, the bedframe, even the dresser with its rows of small ceramic figurines. All Hello Kitty, some with bows, others with tiny painted expressions of vacant, cheerful contentment that feel deeply wrong in a place where nothing should be cheerful.
The bed is covered with a pink duvet and pink pillows, a stuffed Hello Kitty the size of a small child propped against the headboard. You’re sitting on the edge of said bed in this aggressively pink room, clutching a pillow to your chest and crying so quietly your body barely moves.
You washed your face in the bathroom with shaking hands. The soap smelled like strawberries, which is either a kindness or a coincidence and in the Backrooms you've stopped trying to tell the difference. You scrubbed the tear-tracks and the grime and the black residue of Entity X's blood from your skin, and you looked at yourself in the mirror, but the face peering back at you was thinner than you remembered. Sharper. Older in a way that has nothing to do with age and everything to do with the kind of living you've been doing down here.
You looked at your own face, and you didn't recognise the expression on it, and then you did, and that was somehow worse.
You press the pillow into your chest, tears soaking into the fabric, leaving dark spots as you wipe them with the back of your hand.
A plate appears on the bedside table.
Cookies. Round, golden, slightly uneven. Arranged in a careful circle on a pink ceramic plate with a Hello Kitty border.
You didn't hear Mr. Kitty enter. You never do.
He's simply there, filling the corner of the room, his dark shape folded into a crouch that brings his smooth, featureless head level with the top of the dresser. His long arms drape over his knees. The posture is oddly casual for something that nearly went to war with a fellow ancient entity an hour ago.
You glance at the cookies. A wet, exhausted laugh escapes you. Because there's a faceless being the height of a doorframe crouched in a pink bedroom offering you baked goods, and this is your life now, apparently.
Are you feeling better, little one?
His voice settles into your skull with that warm, furred pressure, gentle and unhurried. Little one. He's been calling you that since the third time BB brought you to 974, and the tenderness of it used to make you bristle. You're not little, not a child, not something to be diminished with a pet name, but you've come to understand that little is relative.
To Mr. Kitty, everything is little. The Backrooms are little. Time is little. The enormous, life-destroying pain you're feeling right now is little. Not because it doesn't matter but because it exists within a framework so vast that even devastation is a passing thing for him.
“No,” you answer honestly. “I feel awful.”
Mr Kitty's head inclines. A slow, measured tilt that you've learned to read as acknowledgement. He doesn't offer comfort. He doesn't say it'll be okay or this too shall pass or any of the empty phrases that people deploy when they can see someone hurting and don't know what else to do.
“Have you ever experienced anything like this?” you ask, wiping your eyes with the heel of your hand. “This mess. This kind of—”
You gesture vaguely at the room, at yourself.
No.
A pause.
I'm not human.
You stare at him. His blank face gives nothing back. The delivery is so flat, so matter-of-fact, so completely devoid of inflection that it takes your exhausted brain a second to register that the seven-foot faceless entity crouched in a bedroom full of Hello Kitty memorabilia has just delivered the driest possible response to your question.
You snort wetly despite yourself, wiping your nose.
“Is everyone okay? Out there?”
The humans are safe. They've eaten. I've provided almond water. It helps with the psychological effects of prolonged exposure. The mind frays here. Theirs will fray faster than yours did. A pause. The blank head angles slightly, as if consulting a source of information you can't perceive. The older man… he was located. But he refused to come with my guidance. He's making his way back toward the entry point on Level 2. Alive, as far as I'm aware. Frightened. But alive.
“Thank you.” The words come out thin. Insufficient. You're thanking a being older than human civilisation for babysitting your kinda-boyfriend and his new girlfriend while tracking down your former employer through an interdimensional nightmare. “For all of this. For letting us—”
You're welcome in this house. You've always been welcome.
Your fingers dig into the pillow. “What about BB?”
Mr. Kitty's head tilts again. The angle is different this time, sharper, more deliberate.
The Backrooms are in disarray. An observation, not a complaint. Entity X's presence has had an unusual cascading effect. Smilers are ranging further. Skin-stealers have been reported on levels they typically avoid. Another pause. His faceless head angles toward the window, toward the levels that stretch below and above and in every impossible direction. Your boy is clearing up the mess.
Your boy. Indulgent, slightly bemused. You don’t correct him, not even now.
Entity X seems to have an unusual ability to affect other entities. Amplifying their aggression. Destabilising their territorial patterns. As if its presence is contagious. An emotional frequency that spreads through the hum, agitating everything it touches.
You think about Entity X. About the burning yellow eyes that never looked away. About the argument it played through the walls to lure you out. Why that conversation? Why your argument, specifically?
Why did it know what Bobby sounded like when he was shutting you out? The questions stack up in your head the way the entries stack in your notebook. Pattern without explanation. You can feel the shape of it, the edges pressing against the inside of your skull, but the centre won't resolve.
“Why me?” you ask, peering at Mr Kitty. “Why does it want me?”
Mr Kitty is silent for a long moment. His blank head angles toward you with that sharper tilt. As if he's reading something written on you in a frequency only he can perceive.
I have a theory. Measured. Careful. But theories without sufficient evidence are just stories. And stories can be dangerous in a place that listens and can make them a reality.
“Tell me.”
When you're ready to hear it, little one. When the answer won't do more harm than the question.
The deflection is gentle but absolute, and you know better than to push. Mr Kitty doesn't withhold out of cruelty. If he's not telling you, it's because the telling carries a weight he doesn't think you can hold right now.
You file it away. Another entry in the private section of the notebook. Another question with no answer.
“Has it—is it gone?”
Retreated. Very suddenly. For reasons I can't determine. Mr Kitty's face tilts back toward you. That concerns me more than its presence did. An entity of that power doesn't retreat without cause. It either ran into an unexpected problem, or it decided to wait for a better opportunity.
The words settle on your shoulders.
You sit for a moment longer. The pink room. The cookies. The faceless being in the corner, patient and still. The faint sound of voices from the living room floats over. Low, murmured, too indistinct to make out words. Bobby's voice. Kat's voice. Talking about you, probably. Talking about what comes next. Discussing whatever people do when the world has ended, and they're sitting in a pink house eating scones and trying to pretend their worldview hasn’t just shattered.
You reach for a cookie. Bite into it. It's good. Buttery, slightly sweet, with a texture that's almost right. The Backrooms' version of homemade, close enough that your tongue can't argue.
“I can't hide here forever,” you mumble, chewing. Your voice is scraped raw, and the cookie is doing nothing to fix that, but it's doing something for the rest of you. The simple, animal act of eating, of taking a thing and putting it in your body, of fuelling the machine. “Even though I want to.”
Mr Kitty says nothing. His blank face radiates with the particular silence that means I agree, and I'm glad you arrived there yourself.
You stand, pressing your palms against your eyes. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. In. Out. The way you breathe before entering a new level, before turning a corner in an unmapped corridor, or opening a door whose other side you can't predict.
The survival breath. The steadying edge you didn’t have back in the real world and only developed here. The willingness not to run away and hide.
You wipe your face one final time. Set the pillow down. Pick up the notebook from the bedside table where you placed it beside the cookies, pressing it against your chest. The weight of it is familiar, grounding, the only possession you have that still feels like yours.
“Thank you, Mr. Kitty.”
Eat another cookie before you go. You’ll need it.
You do as he instructs, then open the bedroom door. You walk down the short hallway of Mr. Kitty's house, past the framed Hello Kitty prints and down the stairs, stepping into the living room.
Bobby and Kat are sitting at the kitchen table.
Their heads are bowed. Close together. Kat's hand is on Bobby's forearm, and Bobby's other hand is pressed flat against the table, fingers splayed, bracing himself.
They're speaking in low voices. You catch the edge of a word. Your name, maybe. Or something that used to be your name before it became something else.
Bobby spots you first.
He stands immediately, like the sight of you alone gave him an electric shock. The chair scrapes the floor. His face is a mess of competing expressions: relief, tension, the careful, wary hope as eh drinks you in. The bruises on his throat have deepened. Dark purple against his tanned skin, four finger-marks and a thumb-mark, BB's handprint developing like a collar on his neck.
You catch the flicker across Kat's face, brief and involuntary. The subtle tightening around her eyes, the tiny pull at the corner of her mouth.
She was saying something to Bobby, and you interrupted it, and the hurt of being interrupted is tangled up with the hurt of being here at all, of sitting in a nightmare for a man who’s looking at another woman with that expression. That searching, desperate, is-she-okay expression that Kat has probably been working for months to earn, and you just walked in and collected without trying.
You see it. You look away from it.
You wrap your arms around yourself. One hand on each elbow, holding yourself together.
“You need to leave,” you tell them flatly. “Both of you. Right now. The Backrooms aren't safe for humans. They were never safe, but right now they're worse. Entity X destabilised everything. Every entity on every level is more aggressive than it should be and you don't have the training or the knowledge to survive that.”
“I'm not leavin' without you.” Bobby. Immediate. Jaw set, chin up, the Bobby-stubbornness that looks like courage and has always been, underneath, a different kind of fear. “I didn't come through a wall, walk through hell and get choked out by my own doppelganger to leave you down here alone. No way in hell.”
You level him with a flat look. The one you learned living here. A part of you wants to remind Bobby that he tore into you less than an hour ago, but he's calmer now. Past the initial, ugly shock.
Bobby surprises you by holding that look.
For a moment that stretches into two, then three. Then his jaw flutters, his gaze dropping, and you see it: the fight leaving him. Not because he agrees, or wants to, but because the woman standing in front of him is not the woman he lost.
The woman he lost was standing in a doorway with her keys and her heart in her eyes, waiting to be seen. The woman standing in front of him now has a notebook and a survival instinct, and she's not waiting for anything.
“BB,” you call out.
The air shifts. Between one breath and the next, there’s a displacement, and the pressure changes in your sinuses.
BB stands at the edge of the living room like he's been there the whole time, like he materialised from the wall, which he probably did. He's more put together than the last time you saw him. His face reset, the fissures sealed, the eyes back to Bobby's blue with only a thin ring of darkness at the outer edges. The black blood is gone. The torn shirt is the same, but he's cleaned the rest, reassembled the human costume with great care.
He looks at you and his whole body orients again. That magnetic pull, that compass-needle pivot, his weight shifting forward onto the balls of his feet, his chin lifting, his eyes searching your face with a hope so raw it makes your heart ache.
Because you called him. And the part of BB that lives underneath the fury and the ancient power and the territorial instinct—the part that learned to kiss you in a kitchen and asked am I doing it right and pressed his lips to your forehead because you taught him that tenderness—that part heard his name in your voice and came running. And he’s standing in front of you now, practically vibrating with a desperate, transparent hope that calling means forgiving.
It doesn't. He can see that too. The hope flickers. Dims. Holds, just barely, at the edges.
“I need you to take Bobby and Kat out,” you tell him calmly. The survival voice. “Back to the real world. Through the wall in Clark's basement.”
BB's expression morphs. A crease appears between his brows, a tightening at the corners of his mouth. He glances at Bobby, at Kat, and the glance carries a weight that isn't quite hostility. Closer to resignation.
“I can't,” he says.
“BB—”
“The path is gone.” He says it plainly, without the smooth, closed expression he wore when you asked if he knew Bobby was looking for you. “Entity X destroyed sections of Level 0 during the fight. The corridors between here and the adjacent entry point to the storage basement on Level 0 are collapsed. The hum no longer reaches those sections. They've been severed from the level entirely.”
You can feel everyone staring at BB as you absorb his words.
“Then find another way,” you say. “There are other exits. Other entry points. You've said—”
“The only feasible exit I can guarantee right now is the M.E.G. outpost.” BB's eyes are on you. Only you. Bobby might as well be furniture. “The one on the far side of Level 4. But the direct path from here is gone. We'll have to go through the Poolrooms, and cut across to Level 4 through the threshold at the deep end. From there it's a straight corridor to the outpost, but that corridor runs through a section of Level 4 that's been unstable since the cascade.” He pauses, weighing his words. “The Poolrooms should be passable. Level 4 is the risk. Entities might shelter there because the layout gives them cover. Under normal conditions it's manageable. Right now, with the aggression spike, it'll be hostile.”
You run the route in your head.
Level 974 to the transitional stairwell. Through the Poolrooms, warm chlorinated water and blue tile, a level you've mapped partially, three pages of the notebook dedicated to its spanning layout and the way sound carries across the surface.
You know the Poolrooms. BB took you there multiple times. You used them in the past for hygiene and a change of scenery both.
The water was warm, and the light was washed-out blue, and nothing lived in it that wanted to hurt you, at least not then.
From the deep end threshold into Level 4. The endless office complex, the one that looks like every corporate building you've ever been in hollowed out and stretched to infinity. Dark. Echoing. Full of cubicles and conference rooms and hallways that dead-end without warning.
You've only been there once, briefly, and your notes on it are thin at best.
Half a page, a rough sketch, a warning symbol in the margin.
“How far?” you ask.
“Through the Poolrooms, it's distance without danger. Level 4 is the gauntlet. Maybe an hour on foot, if the path holds without shifting and nothing's nesting in the corridor.” BB's expression goes tense, focused. “I'll clear what I can ahead of you. You navigate.”
“Wait, who's M.E.G.? What’s Poolrooms?” Kat’s voice floats over from the table, cautious but steady. “What even is that?”
“Research group,” you reply, turning to her. It's the first time you've spoken to her directly without anger in your voice, and you can feel the shift, the effort of treating her like a person instead of a scapegoat to your jealousy. “Explorers. They study this place. Map it. They've been operating down here for… I don't know how long. But they're organised. They have resources.” You pause. “I think they can be trusted. It might be the safest option.”
Kat nods, quick and decisive. The relief on her face is visible. Not at the thought of leaving you behind, or at winning some unspoken competition, but at the prospect of a plan. A structure. An exit with a name and a direction and people on the other side who might know what they're doing.
Kat is a practical woman in an impractical situation; you can tell as much, and the offer of practicality is the first solid ground she's stood on since she climbed through a wall in Clark's basement.
“Fine,” Bobby says quickly, his voice rough. “M.E.G. Great. Let's go.” He pushes off the table. “All of us.”
You inhale deeply. “Bobby.”
“I said I'm not leaving without you.” Louder. More determined. The Bobby-edge again, the blade under the casual, except there's no casual left. It's all blade now, all sharp. “I'll go with Kat. But I'm not walking through some—some exit and leaving you in this place. I'm not.”
BB's lips peel back. A flash of teeth behind the Bobby-mask, involuntary, predatory, the territorial snarl surfacing before he can catch it.
The sight of Bobby refusing to leave you, refusing to relinquish, insisting on staying close to the thing BB considers his triggers something primal in the entity underneath.
He catches it at once, swallowing over it. His lips close over his teeth, jaw clenching painfully. He doesn't speak. Just stares at Bobby with the flat, unblinking intensity that tells you he’s choosing, with considerable effort, not to put Bobby through another wall.
Bobby, to his credit, ignores him. Pointedly and aggressively, with that specific brand of human stubbornness. Bobby will not look at BB. Will not address BB. Only pretend that the thing wearing his face is not standing six feet away radiating enough barely-contained fury to crack plaster.
This is Bobby's version of control: the refused glance, the turned shoulder, the full-body declaration that you do not exist to me deployed by a man who’s terrified and is handling it the only way he knows how.
BB turns to you.
His expression changes immediately. The snarl evaporates. The territorial fury, banked. What replaces it is… you haven't seen this expression on him before. Grim. Drawn.
“The Backrooms are more dangerous than they've been in—” He pauses, choosing a unit of measurement you'll understand. “A very long time. Entity X's effect on the other entities hasn't fully dissipated. Level 4 will be a problem. The interior section between the threshold and the outpost is normally dead space. Empty offices, dead lights, nothing worth hunting in. Right now it's contested. Things are sheltering in the cubicle rows and conference rooms because the layout gives them cover, and they're angrier than they should be.” He twists his head, and you hear a crack follow the near reptile movement. “I'll move ahead. Clear what I can. You bring them through behind me. Move only when you’re certain, and stay together.”
You look at him. Really look, for the first time since earlier. Past the anger, and the betrayal, past the closed-off face and the too smooth expression and the omission that restructured everything between you. You look at BB, and you see—
He's thinner somehow.
The word isn't right, but it's the closest you have.
The Bobby-suit fits differently. Looser. The cheekbones more prominent, the jaw more defined, the chain at his rebuilt throat sitting lower against collarbones that press closer to the surface than they used to. He looks worn in a way that has nothing to do with clothing and everything to do with consumption.
And you understand, then, that the fight with Entity X and the sustained lockdown and the perimeter patrols and all the emotional turmoil earlier have been drawing from a reserve that isn't infinite.
As if even ancient things have a fuel line and his is running lower than you've ever seen it.
You choke the worry back. Push it down. Below the anger and the hurt, into a place where the things you can't afford to feel right now go to wait.
“Fine,” you say. “The M.E.G. outpost. Through the Poolrooms, across Level 4.”
You turn to Bobby and Kat. Bobby is standing by the table with his arms crossed and his jaw clenched rigid, staring at a random spot just past BB’s shoulder.
“Grab anything useful,” you instruct. “The almond water Mr. Kitty gave you if there's any left. Take that, don't spill it. Anything you can carry that isn't too heavy.” You glance at Bobby, stopping him in his tracks when he tries to approach you, his mouth open. “We're leaving right now. Not in ten minutes. Not after another argument. Now. Every second we stay is a second Entity X might come back and cause more damage.”
Bobby sucks in a breath, but the argument dies on his tongue. You watch it happen. He could spit back a thousand arguments, but you’re the one speaking and he hears the authority earned through months of exploration, notebooks, and close calls.
He doesn't trust the Backrooms. He doesn't trust BB. But somewhere underneath the hurt and the anger and a thousand unspoken things, Bobby Franklin still trusts you.
He grabs the water from the table without a word, shoving it in his jean pocket. His camera is gone—left on the floor in the junction room on Level 0, the first camera Bobby has ever abandoned—and his hands look wrong without it. Empty. Painfully exposed. Like a man missing a limb he didn't know was prosthetic until it was gone.
Kat gathers the remaining almond water, tucking what food she can into her hoodie pockets. Practical. Quick.
“Let's go,” you say.
You don't look at BB or at Bobby when you say it. You look at the door, at the path beyond it, at the route in your head that threads from 974 through the transitional stairwells to the Poolrooms and across Level 4 to the outpost, and you start walking.
They follow.
“Stay close to me at all times. Don't touch the walls and don’t trust any voices you might hear.”
Your voice rings flat. Instructional. Bobby and Kat fall into step behind you. Bobby first, Kat behind him, the formation you established at the threshold of Level 974 and haven't had to explain because the hierarchy asserted itself the moment you started walking.
You lead. They follow.
The notebook is open in your hand, a pen gripped in your other, and you're annotating as you move. Small marks in the margins, corrections, new landmarks added to half-finished maps.
The stairwell between 974 and the Poolrooms is narrower than you remember. The lights are different. Dimmer. The hum is carrying a frequency you've never heard before. A low, dissonant undertone, like a second voice buried beneath the first, and you don't like it.
Something skitters in the walls.
The sound is dry and rapid, claws or teeth or something with too many joints moving through a space between surfaces, and it tracks your group for three corridors before fading into the deeper dark.
Bobby's breathing changes behind you. Faster. Controlled, but faster. He's holding it together for now, jaw locked, hands fisted, the physical performance of calm layered over a body that is screaming at him to run.
Kat grabs the back of his shirt, her knuckles blanching from how hard she grips. He doesn't shake her off.
The stairwell descends, the air changing the lower you go. Warmer, carrying a chemical sweetness that prickles in your nose and coats the back of your throat. Chlorine.
The smell of it hits your chest like a memory: public pools in the valley, summer afternoons, the way the chemical tang used to cling to your hair for days. Except this chlorine is wrong. Too sweet, too warm. Like the Backrooms took the concept of a swimming pool and replicated it from the smell up, getting the details slightly off.
“What is that?” Kat wonders from behind Bobby, her voice raspy.
“Chlorine,” you answer. “We're close to the Poolrooms.”
“Right. The Poolrooms."
You don't answer. The stairwell opens up, and Level 37 unfolds in front of you.
Water. Everywhere. Still, warm, impossibly blue; a type of blue that doesn't exist in nature, that sits somewhere between swimming pool and bioluminescence, casting its light upward onto tiled walls and low ceilings and pillars that descend into the water at regular intervals.
The room is vast, the ceiling dipping low. The combination creates a sort of compression. Intimate and infinite at the same time, the sense of a space that goes on forever in a room you can almost touch the top of. The water is clear to the bottom. The tiles beneath it are white, clean, pristine, stretching into a distance that the blue light eventually swallows.
No sound except the dripping water. The gentlest possible lapping against tile, rhythmic, hypnotic, the sound of a surface that is barely being disturbed by something you can't see. The hum is different here. Softer, rounded, the dissonant undertone from the stairwell dissolved into sound almost musical.
The Poolrooms absorb aggression the way water absorbs heat. BB was right. Nothing agitated shelters here.
“Jesus Christ,” Bobby says quietly, staring at the water with wide-eyed awe.
You wade in first, and the water is mercifully warm. Body temperature, lapping at your ankles, then your calves, then your knees as the floor descends in a gentle gradient. Your bare feet find purchase on the tiles below.
You've been here before and know the depth map. There’s shallow sections that hug the walls, and the deeper channels between the pillars which intercut with the point near the centre. That’s where the floor drops and the water reaches your waist, the blue light intensifying until the whole room looks like the inside of a sapphire.
Bobby and Kat follow behind you. Slower, less sure.
Kat gasps when the water reaches her thighs. Bobby is silent, wading after you without a word. He scans the surface, the pillars, the low ceiling, and you can see him searching for threats the way you used to. With that raw, untrained hypervigilance you had in the beginning when you could tell something was wrong but didn’t have the vocabulary to describe what.
You navigate by the pillars. Third from the left, then straight, then angled right toward the far wall where the tiles change colour. White to grey to a faint, barely-visible green that marks the deep-end threshold.
BB showed you this path. BB walked it with you, his hand at your back, his cool skin a contrast to the warm water.
And BB's presence now is a pressure at the edges.
You can't see him. Haven't seen him since you left 974. But you can feel the evidence of his passage all the same. A corridor that should have been obstructed, clear. A sound in the distance that starts hostile and cuts out abruptly.
Then a silence that follows when something deadly, fast and ancient has moved through a space and left nothing alive behind it.
He's ahead of you, running interference, clearing the route the way he said he would. And even through the hurt, the reliability of it—the kept promise, the maintained commitment to your safety—swells a lump in your throat you can’t quite swallow over.
Behind you, Kat mumbles something, a joke maybe, chuckling weakly even when Bobby doesn’t join in. His reply is swallowed by water churning around your waist.
“How long did it take?”
You say it without turning around. Your voice carries across the water, bouncing gently off the tiled walls, and the acoustics of the Poolrooms give it a quality that sounds almost peaceful, almost conversational.
Bobby's wading pauses. A half-step. Then he catches up. “What?”
“Before you slept with her.”
Behind Bobby, Kat makes a small, indignant sound, an inhale that she catches in her throat, and then silence again. Just the three of you wading through water in a room that shouldn't exist.
You wait for the usual: the blade, the joke, the easy redirect, maybe even anger. But he surprises you again.
“Fifteen months.” The damaged vocal cords give the words a rough, scraped quality. “After you disappeared. Not after—not after the store. Not after Clark kicked me out. Months after that. She'd been...” He trails off, water sloshing around his hips. “Kat was just there. Every day. And I was—I wasn't okay. I wasn't anything close to okay, and I thought I’d never see you again. And one night I just—” He pauses, breath catching in his chest, refusing to look at you or at Kat while he speaks. “Fifteen months. It took fifteen months.”
Your stomach turns. A slow, visceral roll, nausea that has nothing to do with the chlorine and everything to do with the number.
Fifteen months of absence before the body you loved pressed itself against someone else.
Fifteen months of grief before the hands that used to find the small of your back in a crowd found someone else's waist in the dark.
You do the math. You can't help it. The inventory brain, the cataloguing brain, calculating: he thought you were dead. Everyone had forgotten you. The tapes were blank. Fifteen months is a long time when grieving. Fifteen months of believing the person you love is gone is a long time.
The math doesn't help. Not even a little bit. The pain blooming in your chest is too blinding and too scalding to lean on logic right now.
You nod. Once. Keep wading, your teeth sunk into your cheek to stop yourself from being petty, trying your hardest to understand.
“Did you?” Bobby asks. His voice is different now, quieter, stripped of the combative edge from earlier, carrying instead a fragility that doesn't suit his face. “BB. Did you—with him?”
“No.”
Bobby exhales. A breath he's been holding since Mr Kitty’s house, maybe longer, released through his nose in a long, shuddering stream. The relief on his face is naked and immediate, and you can see it from the corner of your eye even without turning to look at him.
“I taught him to kiss,” you admit, still staring straight ahead. At the pillars, at the blue, at the threshold approaching in the distance. “But it took months. He didn't… he'd never touched anyone. Never been touched. I taught him to dance first. Then the kiss.”
Bobby lets out a soft, bitten scoff. Air pushed through his teeth, his head turning away, and you brace for the quip, for Bobby's deflection mechanism deploying against the image of his own face learning to kiss from the woman he loves.
But the scoff dies without becoming a sentence. It lacks heat., and it lacks edge. It's just a sound a man makes when he's hearing something that hurts in a way his defences can't react against.
When you glance at him, Bobby's face is sad. Not angry like earlier, just sad.
The anger burned out somewhere in the Poolrooms, extinguished by the tranquil water and the washed light, and what's left is just Bobby. Heartbroken. Worn to the bone by grief and stress. Looking at you in the blue glow with his eyes full and his jaw loose, his whole face creased with emotion Bobby Franklin has spent his entire adult life refusing to let sit on his features unchecked.
He opens his mouth. His lips form the beginning of a word—your name, maybe, or something else, something that's been sitting behind his teeth for eighteen months waiting for you to be close enough to hear it—but you turn away. Keep walking.
The water parts around your waist and the threshold is ten metres ahead, and you keep walking because if you stop, if you let Bobby say whatever he's about to say with that face in this blue light, you will not be able to handle it.
You're not going to have this talk with him now, while Kat is right there.
“We're close,” you say instead. “The threshold is at the deep end. Keep your heads up.”
Level 4 is wrong.
The threshold deposits you in a corridor that looks like every office building you've ever been in.
Fluorescent-lit, drop-ceiling, grey carpet, cubicle partitions stretching into a distance that the lights don't fully reach. It should be mundane. It should be the most boring level in the Backrooms. An infinite corporate complex, all right angles and fire exits that don't actually exit and conference rooms with whiteboards still carrying the ghosts of meetings that never happened.
You've seen it before. Your notes describe it as low-threat, low-entity, dead space.
Your notes are wrong.
The lights flicker. Every third tube is dead, creating pockets of darkness between the lit sections, and the darkness is too deep. A dense, weighted thing. The cubicle rows stretch to the left and right, and the partitions are higher than you remember. Head-height, blocking sightlines, creating corridors within corridors, and the air smells like old paper and burnt plastic.
“Stay behind me,” you whisper, your heart rate picking up even as you fight to keep your tone level. “Single file. Don’t speak above a whisper.”
Your feet carry you through the cubicle rows. Past desks with dead monitors and phones with their receivers off the hook, and coffee cups with something growing in them that you don't look at closely. The carpet muffles your steps. Bobby and Kat are ghosts behind you. Silent, moving when you move, stopping when you stop, their breathing controlled, shallow, and terrified.
There’s sudden movement in the cubicle row to your left.
You freeze. Hand up, the signal you developed on Level 1 with BB, palm flat, fingers spread, stop now. Bobby and Kat stop at once.
The movement continues, a shape passing behind the partition, visible through the gap between the top of the cubicle wall and the drop ceiling. Tall. Hunched. Moving with a liquid, boneless gait that doesn't match any anatomy you've catalogued. It passes through the row parallel to yours, separated by one partition, close enough that you can hear the sound it makes. A wet, clicking respiration, each breath accompanied by a small pop, like a joint dislocating and relocating with every inhale.
It passes, the clicking fading into the background as it goes. You count to thirty before you move again.
Two more corridors follow. You pass a conference room with the door ajar, and inside you spot something that looks like skin draped over a chair. Smooth, pale, and gently rising and falling with a respiration you can see from the doorway. You steer them around it. Wide. Bobby's eyes find it through the gap, and his face goes grey while Kat presses her face into his shoulder and doesn't look.
The evidence of BB is everywhere.
A corridor that ends in a smear of black against the wall. Fresh, wet, still dripping. A fire exit door buckled inward from a force applied on the other side, the metal warped around a handprint that's too large to be human. A section of cubicles reduced to kindling, the partitions shattered, the desks overturned, and in the centre of the wreckage a shape. Crumpled and motionless, its limbs arranged at angles that suggest it was alive when it was rearranged and is not alive now.
You don't let Bobby and Kat see this one. You route them around the long way, through a break room with a vending machine that hums with a frequency that makes your ears ring.
The M.E.G. outpost is close. You can feel it.
A shift in the hum, a thinning of the air that means a threshold is near. The levels get permeable around outposts, BB told you once. The boundaries soften.
You round the corner into a wider corridor—open-plan, the cubicles giving way to a broad hallway with glass-walled offices on either side—and you see the equipment. Monitors. Cables. A mounted camera fixed to the wall at head height, its red recording light blinking steadily. Sensor arrays bolted to the ceiling tiles. Data collection equipment arranged along the corridor walls with the organised, labelled precision of people who’ve been here a long time and plan to stay.
“M.E.G.,” you say, exhaling. The relief that pangs your chest is almost physical. A loosening in your shoulders, a softening in the grip of your hand on the notebook. “We made it. This is their monitoring station. The outpost should be just ahead. We just need to—”
The hands come from behind you.
Three sets. Gloved. They grab your arms, your shoulders, the back of your neck, practised and coordinated.
You're yanked backwards off your feet, and the notebook hits the floor, your spine slamming against a body wearing tactical gear, a muffled voice barking something clipped into a radio, and the hands are everywhere. On your wrists, pinning your arms, dragging you sideways toward a section of corridor you haven't mapped.
These aren't M.E.G.
The gear is different. Same black from the first attack, not yellow. No patches, no insignia, no identification. The faces behind the balaclavas are blank and professional, and they are not studying you. They’re collecting you, the way you'd collect a sample they failed to collect the first time around.
Bobby's scream rips through the corridor.
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER—GET OFF—”
He's fighting. You can hear it behind you, the sounds of a man throwing himself at something larger and better-armed, the crack of a fist against body armour, the grunt of impact. Bobby's voice, raw and shredded and operating on pure adrenaline, screaming obscenities that echo off the walls while someone restrains him.
“Leave them,” one of the agents says into the radio, his voice clipped, indifferent. “The woman is the objective. Leave the other two for the others, it’ll buy us some time.”
For the others. The words register with a cold, clinical clarity. Leave Bobby and Kat in a Level 4 corridor swarming with agitated entities and walk away. Leave them to die. Leave them as discarded variables in whatever equation these people are solving, the irrelevant remainder, the human wreckage.
Your rage swells to near blinding.
A sudden, massive, tidal expansion in your chest, filling every cavity, pressing against your ribs and your throat and the backs of your eyes.
The agent's hand is on your arm, and the grip is iron and Bobby is screaming. Kat is somewhere behind you shouting, and these people are going to leave them here to die. And the anger is so total, so complete, so enormous that it bypasses your brain entirely and becomes a physical thing, a vibration, a frequency—
The hands holding you fall off.
You stumble forward. The grip just… released. You spin, expecting to see BB, expecting the displaced air and the black eyes and the sound of the hum—
The agent who was holding you is staring at his hands. What's left of them anyway. His gloves end at the wrist, and below the wrist there is nothing. Smooth and cauterised, the flesh sealed as if the hands were never there to begin with.
He hasn't started screaming yet. The shock is still travelling from his eyes to his brain to his vocal cords.
You turn.
Entity X is standing in the corridor behind you.
The fluorescent lights are red again. That deep, arterial crimson that transforms the office corridor into a living organism. Red light pulses, filling the hallway from floor to ceiling, its matte, leathery skin absorbing the crimson until it looks like the corridor itself has grown a body. The featureless face is smooth and wrong, but then the eyes peel open again at your presence, and the burning yellow fixes on you at once.
On you. Only you. As always.
You stumble backwards, your heel catching a cable on the floor. You barely keep your feet.
Entity X is three metres away, and it reaches for you—the arm extending, elongating, the joints clicking with a sound like knuckles cracking in an empty room—and its chest produces a noise.
Low. Gurgling. A wet, clicking sound that lives somewhere between a purr and the settling of bones, repetitive and rhythmic and deeply, fundamentally wrong in a way that your brain can’t place.
It's a sound without analogue. A sound that a body makes when it has no face to express what it's feeling and must channel everything through the mechanics of its torso, and the sound is fixated. Directed at you.
The audio equivalent of the eyes that never leave.
“Get away from me.” Your voice comes out harder than you expect. Sharper. The fear is there. Your heart is slamming, your palms are slick with sweat, your legs trembling beneath you, but your anger is louder. The rage that swelled in your chest hasn't receded. It's sitting right behind your teeth, and when you speak it comes out as a command, not a plea. “Leave me the fuck alone.”
Entity X cocks its head.
The motion is slow. Curious. The massive featureless head tilts to one side with an almost canine quality. It’s almost the same tilt BB does, just wrong, and for one terrible second the gesture looks interested. Like it heard you. Understood what you meant. Like your anger registered as something other than a feeble attempt at resistance, and the fury in your voice is a thing it recognises, that it wants.
The agents regroup behind you. Three of them. The handless one is on the floor, in shock. The others raise weapons. Compact and military-grade, and open fire.
Entity X doesn't look at them.
The bullets hit its torso and sink into the matte skin like stones into mud, and Entity X's arm sweeps sideways, casual and unhurried, the way you'd brush a fly, and the agent closest to it comes apart.
Messily. The one behind him fares worse. The sounds are wet, almost mechanical and over very quickly, leaving nothing but puddles of gore on the floor.
Entity X does all of it without moving its eyes from you once. Bored. Performing violence with the same disinterested efficiency that a human swats insects. The agents are not a threat, not an obstacle, not even a distraction.
Entity X silences them and returns its full focus on you, and the clicking sound continues in its chest, steady, rhythmic, almost gentle.
BB arrives like a thunder crack.
The air splits around you, the pressure wave alone knocking you sideways. Kat hits the floor rolling, and Bobby staggers into the glass wall of an office.
BB hits Entity X at full force, and the two of them crash through the corridor wall and into the space beyond. Cubicles disintegrate around them, ceiling tiles raining down, and the fluorescent tubes shatter in cascading waves as two things too large for this hallway tear it apart around each other.
BB's hand finds your shoulder. Between one collision and the next, between heartbeats. He's there, beside you, in front of you, his black eyes wild and his damaged face cracking, his grip on your shoulder bruising.
“The outpost. Go. Now.”
You run, reaching for Bobby blindly.
Bobby is already moving, Kat's hand in his, pulling her along, his legs unsteady but functional, his face a mask of focused terror.
You grab the notebook from the floor as you pass it, scrambling on your hands and knees. The three of you sprint down the corridor toward the monitoring equipment, toward the thinning in the air that means exit.
You spot them in the distance first.
Yellow suits and masks on. Four of them, clustered at the far end of the corridor around a section of wall that looks slightly different. Smoother, carrying a faint shimmer that you recognise as the visual signature of a no-clip point.
M.E.G. operatives. Real ones, in their trademark gear, and they're waving at you, frantic, urgent, beckoning you forward with the full-body gestures as the fight behind you intensifies.
Bobby's hand closes around your wrist, pulling you forward, and you're running together, his callused fingers locked on your pulse point.
For about three seconds, it's the parking lot at Clark's store, it's the apartment doorway, it's every moment he should have reached for you and didn't. Except now he's reaching, his hand is on you, now he's pulling you toward safety with a bruising grip that says I’m not letting go—
Entity X's hand closes around Bobby's torso.
The grab is sudden and massive, an arm extending from the wreckage of the corridor behind you, reaching over your head, the joints clicking in rapid succession as it unfolds to its full, telescoping length.
The clawed fingers close around Bobby's ribcage and lift. His hand tears from your wrist. His feet leave the ground. His body rises—up, up, Entity X hoisting him like he weighs nothing, his legs kicking, arms flailing, his face contorted with a terror so complete it erases everything else.
Entity X holds Bobby in the air and looks at you.
The burning yellow eyes, fixed. The clicking purr in its chest, steady. Holding Bobby in one hand the way you'd hold up a lantern, displaying him, presenting him, showing you the man in its grip and watching your face to see what you'll do.
“Let him go!” You slam your fists against Entity X's arm—the matte skin fever-hot and yielding and horrifyingly close to organic—and the contact sends a jolt through your system that feels like recognition, like touching a live wire, like something in Entity X's body responding to something in yours. “Let him go, put him down—”
Entity X peers down at you, his head tilting. Curious. Reading. The same interested quality from before. Your hands are on its arm, and it's letting you hit it, absorbing the blows with the patient stillness of a thing that wants to see how far the anger goes.
It throws Bobby.
A casual, underhanded toss, its wrist flicking, the arm releasing, Bobby's body sailing through the air of the corridor and hitting the wall near the no-clip point with a sound that empties your lungs. He crumples. Slides down the wall. You lurch towards him, but Entity X’s clawed hand closes over your throat, yanking you back toward it.
Kat's scream is a bright, piercing thing that cuts through the red light and the clicking, and the M.E.G. operatives move. Two of them grab Bobby under the arms, a third seizing Kat, who was running toward him, dragging them toward the shimmer in the wall.
Bobby is dazed.
His head rolls to one side, his eyes unfocused, blood from a gash above his eyebrow streaming down the side of his face. But he's fighting.
Even concussed, even barely conscious, his hands are grabbing at the M.E.G. operative's jacket, his body lurching back toward the corridor, back toward you, and his mouth is forming your name.
You can see it, can read it on his lips, the shape of the word you taught him to say in a hallway in high school in your junior year, and his eyes find yours through the blood and the chaos and the red light and for one second the corridor contracts to the width of that gaze.
You and Bobby. Looking at each other across a distance that is about to become permanent.
The M.E.G. operatives haul him through. Bobby's reaching hand—the same hand that dropped a camera for you, that grabbed your wrist, that used to find the small of your back in a crowd and cup your face before he kissed you—disappears through the shimmer, still reaching. Kat follows, and the wall smooths over again. The no-clip point seals.
They're gone.
Entity X stands behind you. The clicking sound in its chest shifts, lowering, a frequency that almost sounds satisfied. It adjusts its grip on you.
BB's fist connects with the side of Entity X's torso.
The impact sends the massive red body sideways, slamming into the corridor wall with enough force to buckle the drywall and shatter every remaining light tube within a fifty-foot radius.
The red light dies, plunging the space into darkness lit only by Entity X's yellow eyes and the faint, colourless glow leaking through the cracks in BB's ruined face.
BB's hand finds your shoulder.
The world folds.
The displacement dumps you onto the grass of Level 14, and the impact is soft, yielding, the earth absorbing you the way the Poolrooms absorb sound.
You land on your hands and knees, and the grass is cool and damp against your palms, and you gasp. Pull air in through your teeth. Your lungs are burning. Your ribs ache from the displacement, from the running, from the screaming, from the hours or minutes or however long it's been since you ate a cookie in the pink bedroom and walked into the worst day of your life.
BB is beside you. On his knees. His hands on your arms, your shoulders, running over you with that focused, diagnostic urgency. He’s checking for injuries, for broken things he can fix with his hands, because the broken things he can't fix are piling up faster than he can count.
His fingers press against your ribs. Your wrists. His eyes search your face with a desperation that’s stripped away the last of the Bobby-mask. What's looking at you is BB, just BB, the cracks in his face leaking that pale light, his jaw pulsing, his mouth pressed into a tight line.
“You're not hurt,” he says. Half-statement, half-question, his hands lingering on your shoulders. “Tell me you're not hurt.”
You shake your head because you can't speak yet.
The breath is still caught somewhere between your diaphragm and your throat, snagged on the adrenaline. On the afterimage of Bobby's reaching hand disappearing through the wall, and the sound of Entity X's clicking purr.
You fall back onto the grass, press your palms over your eyes, and breathe. In. Out. In. Out. The stream somewhere behind you moves over its stones with the gentle, trickling sound while golden light drips over your shaking hands.
It takes minutes. Several.
The shaking subsides in stages. Hands first, then arms, then the deep tremor in your core that's been running since since the red light, since the first time you heard Entity X's clicking in the corridor and knew, with a certainty that bypassed logic, that it was coming for you.
The shaking stops, your breathing evening out. Your hands drop from your face, and the meadow is still there. All of it. The tall grass, the fallen log, the amber sky that never changes. BB sits across from you with his knees drawn up and his forearms resting on them and his face wearing the careful, watchful expression.
You rub your face. Drag your fingers across your eyes, your cheekbones, the tight muscles at your jaw. Working off the edge. Pressing the panic down into the place where it can be stored and processed later, when BB isn't watching, when the aftershocks have enough room to shake without an audience.
“Entity X is gone,” BB says quietly after another moment, testing. His voice is low and rough, stripped of its usual easy warmth. “They retreated. Again. Whatever he wanted—” He looks troubled, genuinely so. “Bobby and Kat are through. The M.E.G. have them. They're out of the Backrooms.”
You nod, staring blankly at the grass between your knees.
“You did it.” Softer now. Almost gentle. The voice from the kitchen, from the dance, from the mornings he'd say hey, baby and the world would shrink to the width of his full mouth. “You got them through. They're safe because of you. And I can—I'll rebuild. The apartment. The sublevel. I'll find Entity X and after I've dealt with it, we can—”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
BB falls silent.
A bird, the same small brown bird, or one just like it, lands on the branch above the fallen log and tips its head and watches you with one bright black eye.
“About Bobby.” Your voice is calm. Scraped clean of anger, clean of accusation. Just the question, unadorned, sitting in the air between you. “You heard him. Through the wall, same as me. For months. You heard him looking for me. You knew he loved me. You knew he was sitting three inches away from the entry point, saying the things I needed to hear.” You look at BB. His face, Bobby's face, the face you touched and kissed and studied in firelight and fluorescent light and the blue glow of the Poolrooms. “Why didn't you tell me, BB?”
BB is quiet for a long time. The bird chirps a few times in the tree above. The amber light paints his cracked and healing face, and the tense silence between you fills with the full weight of every answer he could give and the inadequacy of all of them.
“I heard how lonely you were.” Picking through the words the way you'd pick through wreckage, testing each one before putting weight on it. “Before you came through. When you were alone in the basement, on the late shifts. I heard what loneliness sounded like in your voice. And when you were here—when you cried, when you talked about him, when you said he stopped seeing me—I thought—” He falters, shifting in such an shy, human way you almost soften. “I thought we were the same. That our loneliness was the same. Mine and yours. And that I could—”
“That's not what I asked,” you intone coolly.
BB flinches. His fingers curl against his forearms, pressing into the fabric of his ruined shirt as he ducks his head lower.
“BB. Tell me the truth.”
BB's face visibly contorts with pain, his features rearranging around an admission he's been carrying for months the way you carried your anger. Not smoothing over. Not closing off. Just hurting.
“I knew you still loved him,” he admits, barely above a whisper. His eyes fix on the grass, unable to look at you. “I could hear it. Every time you said his name. Every time you cried about him. Every time you talked about the apartment, the mornings you shared, the way he used to look at you. You never stopped loving him. And I—” His voice thins, fraying. “I thought if you knew he was looking, if you knew he was right there, you'd leave. You'd go back through the wall and I'd—”
He stops, swallowing thickly. The sound is audible. The borrowed mechanism of a throat that doesn't need to swallow performing the gesture anyway because the emotion behind it is real even if the body isn't.
“I know it was selfish,” he adds in a hushed whisper.
You gaze at him blankly for what feels like a small eternity.
“You didn't just withhold it.” Your voice is steady, but your hands are shaking again. Anger and grief coiling together so tightly you can't separate them, can't feel where one ends and the other begins. “You used my loneliness. You heard me at my lowest, and you leaned into it. You built a life around my isolation because as long as I was isolated, as long as I didn't know there was something to go back to, I'd stay. With you. That's not love, BB. That's keeping.”
BB's head snaps up. His eyes are bright and wounded, but the expression on his face is gutted. Sheer hollowed-out devastation of hearing the worst possible interpretation of the best thing he ever did and recognising, with a clarity that makes his whole face crumble, that the interpretation isn't wrong.
“But it's what you did.” Quiet. Final. “Regardless of what you meant. Regardless of how well you meant it. That is exactly what you did. You heard a woman crying about being invisible, and instead of telling her she was being looked for, you made yourself the only thing she could see.”
The amber light falls on his struck face, and the cracks in it have stopped leaking, the damage from the fight slowly closing, and the face that's left is Bobby's, wearing an expression he never wore.
Raw and open, and so deeply, completely sorry that the air around it seems to bend.
“You were happy,” he says quietly. Almost to himself. Like he's testing the memory against the accusation, holding them up side by side to see if they can coexist. “You started smiling again. Laughing. When we walked through the Poolrooms the first time, you laughed at something I said and the sound—” His voice catches. “The sound was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. I thought—I thought I was fixing it. The loneliness. The pain. I thought if I could just—keep you safe, keep you close, give you everything he didn't—you wouldn't need to go back. You wouldn't want to. And that would be enough.”
Your eyes burn, tears pressing forward, hot and insistent, and you clench your jaw against them.
Because you can hear his sincerity. The genuine, unperformed, unhuman sincerity. He heard you cry through concrete and decided, with the full weight of its ancient and limited understanding, that the solution to your pain was its presence.
BB didn't think he was trapping you. BB thought he was saving you.
The distinction doesn't make it okay. The distinction makes it worse because it means the thing that hurt you was trying, with every tool it had, to love you well. And its best tool was deception.
“You should have told me.” Tears are falling now, and you don't wipe them. “You should have given me the information. All of it. And then you should have let me choose. Even if the choice was leaving. Even if the choice was him. You should have let it be my choice, BB. That's what love does. It doesn't decide for the other person. It doesn't curate the options to guarantee the outcome you want. It gives them everything, and it lets them choose, and it survives the choosing, even if the choice breaks it.”
BB says nothing. His eyes fix on yours, and his expression is accepting. Terrible, slow, grinding acceptance. The kind that arrives not all at once but in layers, each one heavier than the last, pressing down on whatever passes for his heart.
“I didn't want to lose you,” he whispers, his voice catching. “I'm sorry. I—I didn't want to lose you.”
You sit across from the being who built you a kitchen and taught itself to kiss and pressed its mouth to your forehead every morning so it could lie to you with every tender gesture because the truth would have set you free and freedom was the one thing it couldn't give.
You breathe in, glancing up at the sky. At those breathtaking gradients of gold and amber, laced with violet at the edges. The sky that never changes, the eternal late afternoon of a level called Paradise that exists inside a place that shouldn't exist at all.
You look back at BB.
“Do you know why I stayed?” you ask softly. “In the beginning. When I found out you weren't actually Bobby. Do you know why I didn't run?”
BB's face tightens, and the pain that crosses it is visible, bright hot.
“Because of the face,” he says, low and pained. The words dragged out of him like splinters from beneath the skin. “Because I look like him. Because you love him. Because you wanted him—always him, always Bobby—and I was close enough.”
Your eyes fill. The tears spill over fresh, tracking down your cheeks, and you stand. Cross the distance between you. Close it. Three feet. Two. One. Until you're standing in front of him and he's looking up at you from the grass with Bobby's blue eyes and BB's anguish and the meadow light on both of you.
You touch his face.
Your fingertips on his cheekbone. The line of his jaw. The scar from the cabinet door that happened to someone else's body. Your thumb traces the corner of his mouth. That corner where the grin starts, the lopsided one, the one that's his and not Bobby's.
BB makes a sound. Low. Wounded.
A vibration that starts in his chest and comes through his throat as something between a sigh and a moan. His eyes close and his head turns into your palm, nuzzling closer. Desperate, pressing his face into your hand the way he did the first time you touched him. The sound he's making is continuous, a keening that he can't seem to stop, and his hand comes up and covers yours on his cheek and holds it there, feeling him shake.
“It was never about the face,” you choke out, your voice breaking. The tears fall freely now, and you let them. “It was you. Just you, BB. The way you listened. The way you learned me. The way you held me like I was the first thing you'd ever wanted to hold. The way you asked am I doing it right after kissing me, and the answer was always yes. It was always just you.”
BB's eyes crack open. Wet. Bobby's blue, glassy with a moisture that shouldn't be there, that his body doesn't produce, that has no biological mechanism to explain it… and yet. His lashes are dark and clumped, his eyes full and the expression in them is so devastated, so completely and utterly undone, that you have to look away.
You pull your hand back.
BB makes another sound. Louder. A moan that cracks open midway through and becomes something raw and guttural, a noise that comes from the place beneath the face, beneath the voice, from whatever vast and ancient thing lives at the core of him and is now experiencing, for the first time in its incomprehensible existence, the human agony of being left by the person it loves.
“No,” he breathes. “Please. No, no.”
You lower your head. “Take me to the M.E.G. outpost.”
“Please.” His hand reaches for yours but catches only air. You've stepped back and his fingers close on nothing and his face—Bobby's face, BB's face, the face that learned to smile because you smiled first—contorts. “Don't. Don't leave. You can't—I'll fix it. I'll tell you everything, I'll never keep anything from you again, I'll—”
“BB.”
“—the apartment, I'll make it better. I'll find Entity X and end it, and you'll be safe. You'll be safe forever, I can keep you safe, please, I can—”
You can barely speak. “BB. Stop.”
He stops, his mouth trembling. The word he was forming dies on his tongue. His eyes rest on you, wide and wet, terrified.
“All that's waiting out there is a life that hurt you,” he blurts out, desperate. The words tumble, tripping over each other. BB, who is rarely inarticulate, is now struggling to assemble sentences fast enough to change the outcome. “Illness and old age and people who forgot you and—and a man who didn't see you until you were gone. That's what's on the other side of the wall. You’ll d-die. I… no. Please, no. Not you, not you.”
Your heart is ripping apart. A physical sensation of something in your chest being torn in two directions at once, the fibres separating, the tissue rending.
He's right. He's right about all of it. The world on the other side of the wall is the one that hurt you. The one that made you invisible. The one that let you stand in doorways waiting to be loved and answered with grunts and cold sheets and blank tapes that erased your face. There is nothing on the other side of the wall that is gentle the way BB is gentle, nothing that listens the way he listens, nothing that will press its mouth to your forehead every morning and hold you through the night and learn your name syllable by syllable.
But it's your life. The miserable, broken, painful, mortal thing. Yours.
“If you love me,” you say in a quiet rasp, each word costing a piece of your heart you can feel being subtracted from the centre of your chest. “If you love me the way you say you do. If that promise you made me meant anything at all, or the name I gave you meant anything... then you'll let me leave.”
BB stares at you. The tears—his tears, not Bobby's, the moisture that has no biological origin and exists only because the grief demanded a vessel—tracking down his cheeks, and where they fall the skin glows. Faint. Luminescent. A soft, shimmering iridescence that blooms along the tracks of the tears like bioluminescence, like foxfire, a visible signature of an inhuman emotion marking inhuman skin.
His agony written on his face in light.
BB reaches for your shoulder slowly. His hand is gentle, his touch almost absent.
The meadow folds around you, your stomach lurching. The golden light compresses, narrows, and when the world straightens again, you're standing in the corridor on Level 4.
The monitoring equipment. The cameras. The wall with the shimmer. The remains from operatives are mostly gone. Absorbed by the Backrooms, consumed by the level itself, the corridor healing over the evidence of violence the way skin heals over a wound. A few remain. Dark shapes at the periphery that you don't look at.
The no-clip wall is there. The shimmer and behind it the real world. A place where it rains, and people eat hotdogs and phone calls go unanswered. Where love atrophies through neglect and everyone you've ever known has forgotten your face.
And BB's hand rests on your shoulder, trembling openly. A hand that was built to hold on, that heard you, chose you, kept you, loved you and lied to you, and is now standing in a corridor doing the one thing it has never done.
Letting go.
His hand lifts from your shoulder.
You feel the absence instantly. The place where his palm was goes cold, the last physical connection between your bodies dissolving into air.
“Please,” he rasps behind you, low and shaking, stripped of everything. The charm, the cockiness, the ancient resonance, the hum's harmonic, all of it gone, the voice of a thing that has been reduced to its simplest possible setting: a being, in a hallway, begging. “Please stay. Please don't leave me alone again. Please.”
You turn, walking toward the wall. Your notebook tight against your chest.
“Please.” Louder, more frantic, the word cracking. “I'll be better. I'll tell you everything. I'll never lie to you again. I'll—I can change. I can learn. You taught me how to dance and how to kiss. How to hold you. Teach me this too, teach me how to let you be angry and still stay, teach me how to—”
You keep walking. The shimmer is close now. Five metres. Four.
“Please don't go.” His voice is climbing. Not in volume, in pitch. In frequency. The human register giving way to something else, something that vibrates in the walls and the floor, fillings in your teeth. “Please. I can't—I'll be alone. I'll be alone again. I was alone for so long, and then you were there, and I heard you. You were the first voice in—in—”
The sound fractures. Becomes a keening. A high, sustained, inhuman wail that has no words left in it, just the raw frequency of loss, a being older than language grieving in the only language it has left. Sound itself, vibration itself, the hum turned inside out and made to carry a weight it was never designed to hold.
You stop.
Your composure breaks. Silent tears pour down your face, and your mouth contorts, your chest heaving and you press the notebook against your sternum until it hurts. The keening behind you is the worst sound you’ve ever heard. Worse than the Smiler, worse than Entity X, worse than Bobby's voice saying baby? in a yellow corridor, because this sound has your name in it.
This sound is the noise a heart makes when it's too old and too vast and too full to survive what's happening to it.
You turn and look behind you.
The corridor is empty.
The shimmer on the wall pulses gently, waiting. And the space where BB stood—three metres back, in the corridor, where his voice was—is vacant. Just the flat, beige, infinite emptiness of a level that's been suddenly abandoned.
He's gone.
For all his power. For all the corridors he owns and the entities he's unmade and the levels he moves through like blood through a vein. For all the ancient, vast, immeasurable force that lives inside the Bobby-suit and behind the borrowed eyes and underneath the face he chose because he heard a woman crying and wanted to be the thing that made her stop.
The one thing BB couldn't do was watch you leave him.
You press your hands over your face, and you sob. Hard. A sound that comes from the bottom of your gut and fills the corridor and bounces off the walls and comes back to you changed, louder.
You scrub your face. The heels of your hands grinding against your eyes until white spots swim in your vision. You breathe wetly, straightening, and look toward the wall. The shimmering exit.
You step through.
an: in which everyone has a no good, very bad day ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i was afraid this would happen so i can’t say i’m too shocked
there’s just so much incompetence all around. from valko’s “here damn” release announcement to assuming that his release would make the hundreds of legitimate complaints about the game disappear. there’s just so much naivety and arrogance and avarice into infold’s strategy that as long as they’re producing something, everything is unicorns and rainbows, and fans will forget their concerns about the game and other characters they’ve been attached to for 2.5 years.
that they’d choose to remove valko entirely speaks to just how irate some players were, but god. i just can’t fathom it. if they were working on him for as long as they claimed, surely they’re losing so much time and effort and money and so many resources? and what about the fans who weren’t irate and genuinely anticipated his release? they’ve pumped out all this promo and purposefully gotten players attached to him just to pull the rug out from under them. the people they were planning to siphon money from like crazy upon his release
why not continue with his release and earnestly commit to fixing the game’s other problems? why not devote equal time and resources to all love interests? why not prioritize the main story over sims 3 gameplay no offense cause it was cute? if players were concerned about him ruining their pulls, why not adjust the pulling system? every aspect of this situation had a solution. but when god created the lads leadership team he dropped their vials of competence and hoped no one would notice (we noticed.)
and last but not least i’m a really hard sell on the argument that his character and story elements presented thus far were “too dark” because…look at the other stuff in this game
continuation of my previous post
masterlist of all dami/batfam posts here
starting commissions for batfam content you'd like but haven't seen yet.. DM me if you're interested !!!
warning depictions of violence & major character death. please DNI if these are potential triggers
dami's pov !!
"Dame, that's enough for tonight," Tim says.
"No."
"It's been hours," Dick adds. "Nothing's changed."
Damian's next inhale is sharp. Like a blade piercing through.
Nothing's changed.
"You don't know that," he says. Trying to believe it. Will it to be true.
Eyes strained from staring at the computer. Going over the little evidence he had. Unable to stop replaying their last conversation in his head—
Just stay with me.
I can't do this without you.
Please don't go.
Most days were like this. Tim and Dick spinning his vigil into obsession. His father dragging him away from criminals on patrol. Stopping him before he can cross the line. Jason telling him to consider the worst. Cass's silent solidarity and Steph's optimism.
All of it too much.
Then he'd drag himself back to the apartment in the mornings. Walk past the "Still Missing" posters taped at every intersection. Torn now. Dirty. Most of them covered by more recent news.
Inside the apartment, plastic is taped where the windows should be. Shards of glass and wood still on the floor. Only her belongings kept tidy. Everything in place for when she came back.
He'd curl on their bed for a few hours. Sometimes to sleep. Most days, to smell her scent come up from the sheets. Fading now. The imprint of her body next to him.
"Damian," Dick puts a hand on his shoulder, "I understand this is hard—"
"Shut up," he slaps his hand away. "You don't understand a thing. None of you do."
"The entire Justice League put out a search for her," Tim says. "That included outer space and the bottom of the ocean. Damian, maybe..." He can't seem to finish that sentence.
"She's out there," Damian insists. Fists clenched. Knuckles white. "It's my responsibility to find her."
Tim surrenders first. Leaves. Then Dick.
Alone in the dark cave. Wasting away. A punishment he feels deserving of. For failing his grandfather and mother. Failing her.
Then, the computer flickers with its own volition. Black for a second, before a set of numbers type themselves out.
Coordinates.
"Qalbi?" he whispers to an empty room.
Copies the coordinates rapidly into the GPS. Somewhere along the southern border of Australia. Buried within the forests.
Suddenly, he's on one of the Batplanes, unable to recall how he got into his suit, how he took off into the air. Only one thing on his mind—
I'm coming, Qalbi.
I'll be there this time.
"Damian?" His father's face appears on the control panel monitor. Tired. Grayer. "The coordinates were sent directly to the Batcave. They're in our systems. Rushing towards them headfirst is exactly what they w—"
"I don't care," Damian says, gripping the yoke. Voice uneven. "I don't care, Father. I have to try."
"We can rendezvous with you three clicks from the border," Bruce says. "You don't have to face them alone."
"Don't you understand we can't wait any longer?" Damian argues. Then his voices quiets. The desperation slips through. "Even to see her for just a second...."
"Will mean nothing if you can't bring her home." Bruce sighs. "Son... whether she's alive or not, you're walking into a trap. Let us help you."
He considers it for a brief moment. Softens himself to the idea of accepting help. Of saving her with his family at his side.
But the thought is fleeting. The rational forgotten as Damian turns the call off and sets the plane for radio silence.
I'm coming, Qalbi.
Everything is oddly quiet within the forest. No security systems or hidden assassins to bypass. No traps or locked doors.
Thirty miles of greenery and freshly swept pathways. The Null base spiraling down into the dirt using cobblestone. An old temple or fortress hollowed out for their own purposes.
Doors open when he arrives. Welcoming, even.
The long hallway at the entrance is covered in crimson silk. Candlesticks lit. Shadows lining themselves up along the walls. Unmoving as Damian passes—not so much the turn of a single head.
The hall opens up to a stone cylinder of a room. Doors closing behind him—thud of a lock.
They stand on a platform against the back wall. Three of his mother's former proteges. Traitors. Psychopaths. Demons. Whatever you want to call it, Damian didn't care.
All he wanted was to rip them apart with his bare hands. Deep, seething anger bubbling through his veins, until—
A wooden side door cracks open. The last of the four—taller than Damian, forehead covered in a greasy sheen of sweat—is ushering her forward.
No apparent shackles or restraints. No obvious injuries on her face or otherwise. She looked healthy, strong. Above all else, she was alive.
Damian hears himself gasp. Like breathing air for the first time in a year.
Her head shifts, wanting to look up, but stops when her captor whispers, "Not yet."
Neck bent. Facing the floor.
"Sit," he says, as if speaking to a dog.
And she listens. Kneeling down at the center of the room. Legs tucked neatly beneath herself.
"Good," he says. Sets down a thin sword and a gun before her. "Remember who you are. What you're capable of."
He leaves her. Joins the others on the platform.
"Impressed?" The brunette woman remarks. Not the youngest of the bunch, but the smallest. "Our League will make hundreds like her. Followers, who believe in an equal world."
"Since when are belief and coercion the same thing?" Damian says, teeth grit. Eyes still on her. The hands she holds in her lap. The gaze she won't lift from the floor.
Docile.
"They won't all be like her," she answers. "For there to be choice, there can no longer be you." A wicked grin grows on her face. "She will make sure of that."
Damian watches as she takes the sword into her hand. Slips the gun into her belt.
Tries to call out to her, "—You don't have to do this. We can go home." But even her name doesn't seem to register.
She's unrecognizable when she moves. Faster than the typical trainees the League spat out. Stronger. An amalgamation of Cass's technique and something less graceful, more ferocious.
Damian remains evasive. Redirecting her kicks and punches. Backing away until he nearly hits the door.
The Null's plan is clear. Train her to the point that she can't be subdued. Not without hurting her. Something Damian would never do.
She obviously doesn't feel the same way.
The first strike she lands radiates needles along Damian's jaw. Taints his tongue with the taste of metal. The second tears the leg of his uniform open. A long cut dripping down into the floor, deep enough to sting.
The fight lasts an hour at least. Damian letting her back him into different corners. Rip his uniform to shreds. Hit him each time he's in reach.
It's cathartic almost. Makes him feel like he's paying even a percentage of the price for what he's put her through.
It feels like love in the Al Ghul's own twisted image.
Her sword shoots forward, close to his ear. Like a reflex, he seizes her wrist and disarms her. The sword clatters to the ground, and that's when one of the Null leaders shouts, "Quit toying with him!"
She steps back and rips the gun out from her belt. Steady between her hands. Barrel aiming between his eyes.
Damian exhales. Lifts his hands up slowly. "Qalbi."
Her brows furrow. The word familiar, but the meaning seemingly lost.
Carefully, he peels his mask off. "If this is what you really want then I won't stop you."
The others are talking amongst themselves on the platform. The brunette woman saying, "It's not going to work."
The greasy man responding, "Just give her a second."
Damian takes a step closer. Sees her grip readjust on the handle. Legs and breath not as steady as before.
"It's okay," Damian says.
She's frowning now.
He takes another step.
"Don't," she shudders. Gripping down on the gun. Warning him. "I waited for you."
Damian thinks of all the excuses. The year of sleepless nights and turning the world upside down trying to find her.
None of it means a thing. "I know."
One last step.
The metal of the barrel connects with Damian's forehead.
He inhales. Closes his eyes. Accepts death so long as it comes from her hand.
His father is already on the way. His brothers too, most likely. They'll take care of her. Atone for all the ways he's failed.
"Damian."
His eyes peel open. See the tears streaming down her beautiful face.
She whispers, "I wouldn't have done anything differently."
Words don't come fast enough. Screams and cries for her to stay still. To not rip the barrel away from his forehead.
She turns on her heel. A single hand firing two precise shots. One into the greasy forehead of the Null who walked her inside. Another through the leg of the brunette woman.
The remaining man on the platform—the biggest of the group, the one he remembers his mother boasting of—throws a knife before she can fire the third shot.
He knows it's too late. Knows that when it slips into her chest, it's struck the center of her heart.
She's gone before she can even hit the floor.
Before her blood can fill the cracks between the cobblestone.
Summary ; An affair. A murder. A marriage already in ruins. When Y/N is accused of killing her secret affair, the only person willing to defend her is her husband. Hiromi Higuruma, a brilliant attorney who believes justice is a system meant to be controlled. As the trial unfolds, secrets surface and loyalties fracture, revealing a marriage built not on love, but possession. Hiromi doesn’t care if Y/N is innocent. He only cares that the verdict belongs to him.
This story contains dark romance themes including a deeply toxic and controlling marriage, infidelity, obsession disguised as devotion, psychological manipulation, gaslighting, and power imbalance. The story explores morally corrupt relationships, emotionally charged sexual tension, possessiveness, betrayal, violence, murder, and the blurring of love with punishment. Reader discretion is strongly advised..
PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: chapter 1 ; chapter 2 ;
Hiromi adjusted his tie in the reflection of the station’s glass doors before stepping inside. He did not rush. He did not storm in. He walked the way he always did—measured, deliberate, composed. The kind of man who knew how to own a space simply by entering it.
The fluorescent lights hummed overhead. Officers glanced up when they recognized him. Some with respect. Some with curiosity. Hiromi Higuruma did not visit police stations as a suspect.
He visited them as the man who dismantled cases built inside them. His jaw tightened slightly as he approached the front desk. “I’m here regarding my wife.” His voice was even. Professional. Inside, however, something unfamiliar coiled in his chest. What the hell happened?
A detective approached. Satoru Gojo. Tall. Observant. Calm in a way that suggested he enjoyed pressure. “Mr. Higuruma,” Gojo greeted, offering a polite nod. “Thank you for coming.”
Hiromi mirrored the gesture. “I came as soon as she called.” Gojo studied him for a moment—just a second too long. “This way.” They walked side by side down the hallway. Hiromi’s posture remained straight, controlled. But the further they went, the more the silence pressed in.
He could handle juries. He could handle hostile prosecutors. But not knowing why his wife was sitting in an interrogation room— That was different. They stepped into a separate room—not where you were. Neutral. Professional.
Gojo closed the door behind them. Hiromi folded his hands calmly in front of him. “Start from the beginning,” he said. “Why is my wife here?” Gojo did not answer immediately. Instead, he opened a file.
“You’re aware of Suguru Geto?” he asked. The name landed. Hiromi did not react visibly. “Yes,” he said after a beat. “In what capacity?” “He was found deceased at your lake house.” A pause. Subtle. Controlled. Hiromi blinked once. “My lake house?” “Yes.”
Hiromi exhaled slowly. “When?”
“Our partners are assuming.. between midnight and 2:00 a.m. last night. His body was found this morning. His wife put in a missing persons report after seeing he never came home. We pinged his phone and—”
He nodded once, but then cut him off. “And what does this have to do with my wife?” Gojo’s gaze sharpened. “She was there.” That did it. Not explosive anger. Not shouting. Just stillness.
“She was… there?”
“At approximately 10:00 p.m.,” Gojo continued, flipping a page. “Phone records confirm Geto arrived at the property at 10:02 p.m.” Hiromi’s mind moved quickly now.
Efficiently. “And what are you implying?”
“We’re building a timeline,” Gojo replied evenly. “Where were you between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., Mr. Higuruma?”
There it was. The shift. Hiromi held Gojo’s gaze calmly. “At my firm,” he answered. “Working late. Like I always do.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.” Gojo tilted his head slightly. “Anyone who can confirm that?”
“I was alone in my office,” Hiromi said smoothly. “But our building security logs exits. I can have footage sent immediately.” Gojo watched him closely. “That would be helpful.” Hiromi reached into his pocket, retrieving his phone. His fingers moved with practiced ease as he drafted an email.
To: Kento Nanami
Subject: Security Footage Request
Please send camera logs for my office corridor and lobby between 9:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. last night. Immediately.
He pressed send.
Almost instantly, Nanami responded.
Attachment received.
Hiromi opened the file and turned the phone toward Gojo.
The footage displayed timestamps in the lower corner.
21:47:13 — Hiromi entering his private office.
22:31:52 — Office corridor. Lights on. Door closed.
The timestamps were clear. Between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., he appeared present. Stationary. Working. Gojo studied the footage carefully. Hiromi remained silent. Controlled. After a moment, Gojo handed the phone back. “This rules you out as a primary person of interest,” he said.
Hiromi nodded once. “Good.” Then his composure shifted—just slightly. Now the husband spoke. “Why,” he asked carefully, “is my wife sitting in an interrogation room?”
Gojo held his gaze. “She would be the best person to explain that.” The answer was deliberate. Not accusatory. But not comforting either. Hiromi’s jaw flexed. “I want to see her.”
“You will,” Gojo replied calmly. “But I suggest you listen first.” The room fell quiet. Outside, somewhere down the hall— You were waiting. And Hiromi stood there, immaculate, composed, the image of an innocent husband. Completely ruled out.
The door opened. Hiromi stepped inside. The first thing he saw was the blood. Dried along your upper lip. A faint bruise forming on your cheekbone. Damp strands of hair clinging to your temple from the water that had been thrown at you.
His steps slowed. “What happened?” His voice was calm. Too calm. You looked up at him and your chest collapsed in on itself. “Please,” you said, turning to Gojo “can we have a moment alone?”
Gojo studied the two of you carefully. Then nodded once. “I’ll be right outside.” The door shut. Silence. Hiromi didn’t rush to you. He didn’t grab you. He didn’t demand answers. He pulled out the chair across from you and sat down.
Measured. Controlled. And suddenly, all the strength you had been holding together dissolved. That dull, suffocating fear crept in. Abandonment. You cheated. You lied.
You shattered the foundation of your marriage. And now he was sitting across from you in a police station because of it. Your voice trembled. “I need you to just… listen.” He folded his hands together.
“I’m listening.” You inhaled shakily. “One day… I met someone.” His jaw tightened — almost imperceptibly.
“It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t supposed to happen. I was lonely, Hiromi.” Your voice cracked. “You were always working. Always building something bigger. And I felt like I was disappearing inside our life.”
He didn’t interrupt. “I fell into temptation,” you whispered. “We… were intimate. More than once.” The room felt smaller. You couldn’t look at him. “It was Suguru Geto.”
Silence. You forced yourself to keep going. “We were intimate. Multiple times.” His eyes glossed slightly. A flicker of anger — quick and sharp — passed through them. Then composure returned. “When did it end?” he asked quietly.
You swallowed. “It didn’t. Not that night.” His brow shifted almost imperceptibly. “That night… we were together. At the lake house.” He didn’t react outwardly.
“I left. He was alive when I left. I went home.” Your voice trembled. “And then you told me you wanted children.” That was the turning point.
“That’s when I realized I couldn’t keep doing it. The next morning, I texted him. I told him we needed to talk. I was going to end it.”
Hiromi was very still. “You ended it the morning after,” he repeated. “Yes.” The room felt heavy. “So when he died,” he continued evenly, “you were still involved.” “Yes.” “And the police believe you killed him during a heated breakup.”
“But that’s not true,” you said desperately. “We didn’t argue like that. It wasn’t violent. I didn’t even end it yet.” Hiromi’s fingers curled subtly against the metal table. “You left him alive.”
“Yes.”
“And texted him the next morning.”
“Yes.”
He nodded once. That small nod. Almost approving. Almost… processing. He studied you for a long moment. Then he stood. Walked around the table. And crouched slightly in front of you. His hand reached up, brushing lightly near the bruise on your cheek. “Did he ever hurt you?” he asked quietly.
“No.”
“Did you argue?”
“Yes… but not like that. Not violent.”
He nodded once. Then stood fully. His composure returned like a coat slipping back over his shoulders. “Look at me.” You did. “I am your lawyer now,” he said calmly. “And your husband.”
Your chest tightened. “You will not speak to them without me present.” You nodded weakly. “I don’t care about the affair right now,” he continued, voice steady. “I care about keeping you out of prison.”
Tears spilled down your cheeks. “Why are you being so calm?” you whispered. His eyes held yours. “Because panic is for people who lose.” A pause. “We do not lose.” There it was. The man who dismantled juries. The man who turned murder charges into acquittals. And he was looking at you like you were the case.
The door opened again. Gojo stepped back in. Hiromi straightened, every inch the composed attorney once more. “My wife will not be answering further questions without counsel,” he said smoothly. Gojo’s gaze shifted between you. “She’s a primary person of interest,” he replied.
Hiromi nodded once. “Then you’d better build something stronger than suspicion.” Silence stretched between the two men. “And detective,” Hiromi added calmly, “if my wife is being assaulted in your interrogation rooms, we’re going to have a different conversation entirely.”
Gojo’s jaw tightened slightly.
“Understood.” Hiromi turned back to you. “We’re going home.” And as he helped you stand, steady and protective— No one in that room could see the flicker in his eyes. Not grief. Not devastation. But something colder. Something controlled. Something that had already accounted for every variable.
—————————————
The condo felt too quiet when they walked in. The skyline beyond the glass balcony glowed faintly in the evening light, cars threading through the city like nothing had shifted.
But everything had. Hiromi closed the door behind them gently. “Do you want me to order something?” he asked, loosening his tie like this was just another late night. “We didn’t eat.”
You stared at him. Takeout. Dinner. As if you hadn’t just been interrogated for murder. “I can’t eat,” you whispered. He nodded once. “That’s fine.” He moved toward the kitchen anyway, pouring a glass of water for you without asking. Setting it down gently on the counter.
Still composed. Still steady. Your chest tightened. How could he be so calm? You were sitting on a landmine. The police believed you murdered someone you loved. You might be arrested.
You might never see this apartment again. You might never see freedom again. Your breathing grew uneven. “I didn’t do it,” you said suddenly. “I know,” he replied immediately.
The certainty in his tone shattered you. You covered your face with your hands. “I loved him,” you choked out. There it was. The truth. Hiromi stopped moving. The air shifted.
“I loved him,” you repeated, voice breaking. “Not because he was better than you. Not because I wanted to replace you. But because he… saw me.” Your tears came harder now. “You’re always at work, Hiromi. Always building something bigger. Always winning. And I’m just here.”
Your hands dropped from your face. “Waiting.” He didn’t speak. You laughed bitterly through your tears. “He would text me good morning. He would ask how I slept. He would touch me like I mattered.” Your voice cracked.
“When was the last time you looked at me like that?” Hiromi inhaled slowly. “You come and go,” you continued, shaking. “Like I’m furniture in your life. Like I’m part of the decor.”
His jaw flexed slightly. “I felt abandoned,” you whispered. “In my own marriage.” Silence pressed in. “And maybe when you said you wanted children… maybe that could’ve changed something.”
Your voice broke entirely. “But it doesn’t matter now.” You laughed weakly. “I could be pregnant and it wouldn’t matter.”
His head lifted slightly at that. “It wouldn’t matter,” you repeated. “Because if they arrest me, I’m done. Whether I carry your child or not, I’ll be locked up. I’ll be the woman who killed her lover.”
You wiped at your tears angrily. “I didn’t do it. But none of that matters when you’re framed.” Hiromi walked toward you slowly. You didn’t move away.
“I loved him,” you said again, softer now. “Because he made me feel loved.” The words were brutal. Honest. Raw. “And you…” your voice trembled, “you make me feel replaceable.”
That landed. For a split second, something passed through his eyes. Not fury. Not devastation. Something deeper. But it vanished before you could name it. He knelt in front of you.
Took your shaking hands in his. “You are not replaceable,” he said quietly. You sobbed harder. “I am going to fix this,” he continued, voice steady. “You are not going to prison. You are not going to carry this alone.”
His thumb brushed the side of your wrist. “You made a mistake,” he said carefully. “That does not make you a murderer.” You searched his face.
“You’re not leaving me?” you whispered. He didn’t hesitate. “No.” Your entire body sagged with relief. He pulled you into his chest. You collapsed against him, crying into his shirt, your tears soaking into the fabric. Hiromi held you.
Steady. Solid. Unwavering. And as you clung to him, believing he was the only thing keeping you upright— He closed his eyes. Just for a moment. And tightened his hold.
—————————————————
The next morning was quiet in a way that didn’t feel peaceful. It felt suspended.
The city moved outside your condo windows — traffic humming, sunlight bleeding across glass towers — but inside, everything felt fragile. Like one wrong breath would shatter it.
You stood in front of the bathroom mirror early, long before Hiromi said a word.
Foundation layered carefully over the swelling on your cheek. Concealer pressed gently beneath your eye. A soft brush across your nose to hide the faint discoloration where blood had dried the night before.
You stared at your reflection. Yuki had a right to hate you. You knew that.
You knew the secrets you carried about her marriage. The private things Geto had told you. The promises he whispered in the dark. You weren’t innocent.
But you weren’t a killer. You stepped out of the bathroom dressed in something neutral. Something calm. Something that said cooperative wife, not suspect.
Hiromi was already ready. Suit pressed. Tie straight. Expression composed. He walked toward you without hesitation and took your hand.
The gesture was deliberate. Compassionate husband. But also— Defense attorney. One of the best anyone could ask for. Your heart bumped unevenly in your chest as you both stepped into the elevator.
He didn’t squeeze your hand too tight. Didn’t speak unless necessary. Just steady. Grounded.
When you arrived at the station, heads turned. Not at you first. At him. Hiromi Higuruma didn’t walk into police stations quietly. His reputation preceded him like a shadow.
He kept your hand in his as you passed through the front doors. Not possessive. Protective. You tried to steady your breathing. “They can’t intimidate you,” he murmured softly, just for you.
You nodded. But inside, your thoughts spiraled. If this goes wrong, I lose everything. If this goes wrong, I lose him. If this goes wrong, I go to prison for killing the only man who made me feel loved.
Hiromi glanced at you briefly as you walked down the hallway. “You look pale,” he said quietly. “I didn’t sleep.”
“Sleep tonight,” he replied calmly. “I’ll handle the rest.” Handle. He said it like it was just paperwork. Like this was another case file he would dismantle piece by piece. You entered the conference room where Satoru Gojo was waiting.
This time, it wasn’t an interrogation room. It was procedural. Controlled. Hiromi released your hand only to pull out a chair for you. Then he sat beside you.
Not across. Beside. Unified front. “You requested further discussion,” Gojo said evenly. Hiromi folded his hands. “My wife will cooperate,” he replied smoothly. “Within reason.”
Your pulse thudded. Gojo’s gaze flicked briefly toward the faint bruise beneath your makeup. “I assume we won’t have a repeat of last night’s incident,” Hiromi added lightly.
Gojo’s jaw tightened slightly. “No.” Silence stretched. You stared at the table, trying to hold yourself together. Yuki’s face flashed in your mind.
Her rage. Her grief. Her scream. You couldn’t blame her. If roles were reversed— You didn’t finish that thought. Hiromi’s knee brushed yours beneath the table.
A quiet reassurance. Or a warning. You weren’t sure. “Let’s begin,” he said calmly. And for a moment, sitting beside him, feeling his presence anchoring you— You believed you might survive this. You didn’t know yet that survival and truth were two very different things.
The room was quieter this time.
No raised voices. No slammed doors.
Just paperwork.
Satoru Gojo sat across from you, a legal pad in front of him instead of a file. His demeanor was less aggressive now.
Methodical.
Hiromi sat beside you, one arm resting lightly on the table, posture relaxed but attentive. His presence radiated competence. Confidence.
“Let’s establish history,” Gojo said calmly, pen clicking once. “When did the affair begin?”
Your throat tightened.
You hesitated — aware of Hiromi’s proximity. Aware that this was the first time you were saying it with him in the room.
“Early last year,” you said quietly.
Gojo nodded once and began writing. “And how did you meet Suguru Geto?” You glanced at Hiromi briefly. He didn’t look at you.
He looked at Gojo. Waiting. You swallowed. “At an art exhibit,” you said. “Downtown. It was a private showing.”
“Explain,” Gojo said. You inhaled slowly. “He was the featured painter. I was invited by a publisher.” Hiromi’s gaze shifted slightly at that — but his face remained neutral.
“I’m an author,” you continued. “I write critical essays on symbolism and visual narrative. I was asked to attend and possibly collaborate.”
Gojo leaned back slightly. “And he?”
“He painted,” you said softly. “He had a way of layering emotion into abstract pieces. I could read the intention behind it.” Your voice trembled despite yourself.
“He painted. I translated.”
“In other words?” Gojo prompted.
“In other words,” you said, “he created the image. I described what it meant.” A pause.
“And that’s how it started?”
“Yes.” Hiromi finally spoke.
“Professionally?” he asked calmly. You nodded. “At first.”
Gojo’s pen moved across the paper. “How long before it became physical?” You hesitated again. “Three months.”
“Where did you meet after that?”
“Hotels. His studio. The lake house twice.” Hiromi didn’t flinch. Gojo glanced up.
“Twice?”
“Yes.”
“And the second time was the night he died.”
“Yes.” Gojo leaned forward slightly. “Were you aware that a partial fingerprint was recovered from the fireplace poker?” Your breath caught.
“No.”
“It’s being processed,” he continued evenly. “Initial readings suggest it may belong to a female.” The room seemed to tilt. “I didn’t touch it,” you said immediately. Hiromi’s hand rested lightly on the table near yours — not touching, but close. “Processing is not confirmation,” he said calmly. “Let’s avoid speculation.” Gojo nodded slightly.
“There’s more,” he added. He flipped a page in his folder this time. “We found a handwritten note in Geto’s jacket pocket.” Your heart thudded. “What note?” you whispered. Gojo slid a plastic evidence sleeve across the table. Inside was a folded sheet of paper.
Your handwriting. Your stomach dropped It was one of your drafts. You recognized the ink immediately — a paragraph you’d written weeks ago during a fight with Geto.
‘You promised me a future. Don’t make me regret believing you.’
You felt sick. “That isn’t—” you started. “It was dated two weeks ago,” Gojo said quietly. “And found on his person.” Hiromi looked at it once. Then back at Gojo. “That’s not a threat,” he said smoothly. “It’s emotional writing.” Gojo’s eyes flicked between the two of you.
“It reads like motive.”
“It reads like heartbreak,” Hiromi corrected. Silence. Gojo leaned back. “One more thing,” he added. “There were defensive abrasions on Geto’s hands.” Your breath stalled.
“As if he tried to grab something. Or someone.” The implication hung in the air. “And your DNA was present under his fingernails.” Your chest constricted. “Because we had sex,” you said desperately. “Because I was there!” Hiromi’s voice remained steady. “Context matters,” he said calmly. “She was with him earlier that evening. That explains transfer.”
Gojo watched him carefully. “You understand,” Gojo said slowly, “that on paper, this is not favorable.” Hiromi nodded once. “I understand that on paper,” he replied evenly, “this looks exactly how you want it to look.”
A subtle challenge. Gojo’s gaze sharpened. “You’re suggesting what?”
“I’m suggesting,” Hiromi said calmly, “that if someone wanted to frame my wife, they have everything they need.” The room went quiet.
Gojo closed his folder slowly. “We’re not charging her today,” he said. “But she remains under investigation.” Hiromi stood smoothly. “We expected that.” He extended his hand to help you stand.
Your legs felt weak. As you left the room, your thoughts were spinning. Fingerprint. Note. DNA.
It all looked terrible. And yet— None of it proved you killed him. As you stepped into the hallway, Hiromi leaned slightly closer. “Don’t panic,” he murmured. “I’m not,” you whispered, though your hands were shaking. He squeezed your hand once.
“They’re building a story,” he said softly. “Stories can be dismantled.” And you believed him. Because if there was anyone who could dismantle a narrative— It was Hiromi Higuruma.
He dropped you off in front of the condo without lingering.
“You’ll call me if they reach out again,” he said, tone even.
You nodded.
“Lock the door.”
“I will.”
He waited until you were inside before driving away. The second he turned the corner, his expression changed — not into something monstrous, not into rage. Into fatigue. The firm’s parking garage swallowed his car in silence.
He sat there for a moment before stepping out. Just one moment. Then the mask went back on. He entered the building like he always did — with quiet authority. Staff greeted him. Associates straightened when he passed.
No one knew. No one could see the weight sitting behind his ribs. He didn’t go to his office. He went straight to the restroom. The door shut behind him with a muted click. He turned the sink on. Cold water rushed out. He braced his hands against the marble counter and stared at his reflection. Controlled. Immaculate. Untouched.
He dipped his hands into the water and splashed it over his face. Once. Twice. The cold shocked his skin. God, he was exhausted. Not physically. Emotionally. Holding that composure. Sitting beside you while you confessed loving another man. Listening to you say he made you feel invisible.
His jaw tightened. The words replayed in his head. He made me feel loved. Water dripped from his chin into the sink. He leaned forward slightly, gripping the counter. Frustration simmered beneath his ribs — not explosive, not wild.
Measured. He had every right to be angry. Every right to feel betrayed. But anger was reckless. And reckless men lost cases.
He inhaled slowly. Then exhaled. This was not about emotion. This was about control. The police were building a narrative. He would dismantle it. Yuki was grieving. Grieving people were unpredictable. He would anticipate it. His wife was unstable. Guilt-ridden.Emotional.He would stabilize her. That was his role.
That was what he did. He lifted his head and looked at himself again. There was no visible crack. No tremor in his hands. Only composure. He shut the water off and dried his face carefully with a paper towel. By the time he exited the restroom, his posture had reset completely.
Sharp. Polished. Untouchable. An associate hurried toward him with a file. “Mr. Higuruma, the 3:30 hearing—”
“I’ll take it,” he replied calmly. As if nothing had happened. As if his marriage wasn’t unraveling. As if the woman he loved hadn’t just confessed loving another man. As if the city wasn’t whispering his name alongside murder. He walked down the hallway with steady steps. Because no matter how emotional this case became — He would remain in control. Always.
Hiromi walked straight past his assistant and into his private office.
“Get Nanami. Shoko. Utahime,” he said calmly. “Now.”
The tone left no room for delay.
Within minutes, the three of them entered. Kento Nanami closed the door behind him. Shoko Ieiri crossed her arms, assessing. Utahime Iori stood near the table, eyes sharp. Hiromi remained standing. “Sit,” he said. They did.
He didn’t waste time. “My wife is under investigation for homicide.” Silence dropped like a weight. Utahime blinked. “What?” Nanami leaned forward slightly. “Explain.” Hiromi walked to the window, hands clasped behind his back.
“Suguru Geto. Artist. Found deceased at my lake house.” Shoko’s gaze sharpened. “Your lake house?”
“Yes.”
“And your wife?” Nanami asked.
“She was there earlier that evening.” The room went very still. Utahime was the first to speak. “Are you okay?” Hiromi didn’t answer. “Hiromi,” Shoko pressed, softer this time. “Are you okay?” He turned around slowly. “This is not about me.” It was clipped. Controlled.
Nanami studied him carefully.
“What do you need?”
“Everything,” Hiromi replied immediately. “Background on Geto. Financials. Relationships. Known associates. Pending disputes. Exhibits he’s shown at. Contracts. Debts. Any litigation history.” Utahime frowned. “We’re building defense before charges?”
“We’re building control,” Hiromi corrected calmly. Shoko tilted her head. “You think they’re going to arrest her.”
“They will if I let them.” Nanami nodded once. “Timeline?”
“Death between midnight and 2 a.m. She left before midnight.”
“And you?” Utahime asked carefully.
“At the firm. Verified.” No one questioned that. Shoko watched him closely. “You’re compartmentalizing.” Hiromi’s jaw flexed. “I am prioritizing.” He moved to his desk and opened a legal pad.
“Yes,” Hiromi agreed. His office phone rang. All four of them looked at it. Hiromi picked up.“Higuruma.” A familiar voice answered. Satoru Gojo.
“Hiromi.” There was a pause. “You busy?”
“Always.” Gojo chuckled faintly. “I’d like you to come down to the lake house.” The room went still. “Why?” Hiromi asked evenly. “You and I go way back,” Gojo replied. “I value your brain. I want to walk the scene with you.”
Hiromi’s eyes flicked briefly to his colleagues. “To pick it apart?” he asked. “To understand it,” Gojo corrected. A beat. “You’re not under suspicion,” Gojo added casually. “But I’d appreciate your perspective.” Hiromi leaned back slightly in his chair.
“Now?”
“Yes.” He paused just long enough to appear thoughtful. “I’ll be there in twenty.” He hung up. Utahime exhaled. “You’re going?”
“Yes.” Nanami stood slowly. “Be careful.” Hiromi gave a faint nod. “I always am.” Shoko studied him carefully. “This is personal,” she said quietly. Hiromi adjusted his cufflinks. “No,” he replied calmly. “It’s procedural.” He grabbed his coat. “Pull everything on Geto,” he instructed. “I want his entire life dissected.” As he walked toward the door, Nanami spoke again.
“If this gets ugly—”
“It won’t,” Hiromi said smoothly.
He stepped into the hallway.
And as the elevator doors closed around him, his reflection stared back in the mirrored walls. Crime scene. Lake house. Midnight to 2 a.m. He inhaled once. Slow. Measured. Then exhaled. By the time the doors opened—He was ready.
Summary ; An affair. A murder. A marriage already in ruins. When Y/N is accused of killing her secret affair, the only person willing to defend her is her husband. Hiromi Higuruma, a brilliant attorney who believes justice is a system meant to be controlled. As the trial unfolds, secrets surface and loyalties fracture, revealing a marriage built not on love, but possession. Hiromi doesn’t care if Y/N is innocent. He only cares that the verdict belongs to him.
This story contains dark romance themes including a deeply toxic and controlling marriage, infidelity, obsession disguised as devotion, psychological manipulation, gaslighting, and power imbalance. The story explores morally corrupt relationships, emotionally charged sexual tension, possessiveness, betrayal, violence, murder, and the blurring of love with punishment. Reader discretion is strongly advised..
The station was colder than you expected. Not just the temperature—the feeling. Sterile walls. Fluorescent lights humming overhead. Everything too bright, too clean, too aware.
You sat at the metal table, hands folded tightly in your lap, trying to steady your breathing. Across from you sat Satoru Gojo, sunglasses removed now, revealing eyes far too observant to match his easy demeanor. He wasn’t smiling anymore. “Just to be clear,” he began calmly, folding his hands on the table, “you are not under arrest.”
Your throat felt tight. “Then why am I here?”
“Because,” he replied, tone even, “you were one of the last people confirmed to see Suguru Geto before he disappeared.” The word disappeared echoed louder than it should have. Gojo slid a paper across the table. “I still need to read you your rights,” he said. “Standard procedure.” Your pulse spiked. He read them slowly. Clearly. Each sentence deliberate. You had the right to remain silent. Anything you said could be used against you. You had the right to an attorney.
The irony nearly made you dizzy. When he finished, he leaned back slightly. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” you whispered.
“Good.” Silence stretched for a moment before he spoke again. “How would you describe your relationship with Mr. Geto?” The safe answer hovered on your tongue. Friend. You swallowed. “We were… close.”
“How close?” Gojo asked gently. Your eyes dropped to the table. “Close enough.” He didn’t press right away. He let the quiet work on you instead. “You’re married to Hiromi Higuruma,” he continued. “A respected attorney. A man known for precision.” His gaze sharpened slightly. “And yet you spent time—private time—with another man.”
Your chest tightened. “I wasn’t happy,” you said before you could stop yourself. Gojo tilted his head. “Unhappy enough to have an affair?” There it was. The word landed between you like something solid and undeniable. You hesitated. You could lie. You should lie. Hiromi would expect you to lie. But something in you was too tired to keep building walls. “Yes,” you said finally. “We were having an affair.” The room felt smaller the second the truth left your mouth.
Gojo didn’t react dramatically. He simply nodded once, like he’d already known. “How long?”
“A few months.”
“Did your husband know?” You hesitated again. “No.” That, at least, was the version you were still holding onto. Gojo leaned forward slightly. “When was the last time you saw Mr. Geto?”
“At the lake house,” you answered. Your voice shook but didn’t break. “Two nights ago.”
“Alive?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.”
“And you left him there?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The question lingered. Because I was choosing my marriage. Because I was scared. Because I didn’t know what I was doing anymore.
“I told him we needed to end it,” you said. “I sent him a message later that night. We were going to talk.” Gojo studied your face carefully, as if weighing the tremor in your voice against the steadiness of your words.
“Did you argue?”
“No.”
“Did he threaten you?” Your heart stuttered. “No.”
“Did he threaten your husband?” Your eyes snapped up. “What?” Gojo didn’t break eye contact. “It’s just a question.”
“No,” you said again, firmer this time. Silence filled the room once more. Finally, Gojo leaned back in his chair.
“Okay,” he said. “That’s helpful.”
“Helpful how?” you asked, dread pooling low in your stomach. He paused—just long enough to unsettle you. “Because,” he said evenly, “Mr. Geto’s car was found this morning. Abandoned. Near the water.” Your pulse roared in your ears. “And?” you whispered.
“And we haven’t found him yet.” The weight of those words pressed down on your chest. Gojo stood, gathering his folder. “You’re not in trouble,” he repeated. “But if you remember anything—anything at all—you call me.” He slid a card across the table. You stared at it, your reflection faintly visible in the glossy surface. As he walked toward the door, he stopped and added softly:“Affairs complicate things. Especially when someone goes missing.”
The door shut behind him. And for the first time since this began, you realized something terrifying—This wasn’t just about guilt anymore. It was about survival.
Your hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
Not even after the station doors closed behind you. Not even as you stepped into the cool afternoon air. The world felt too bright. Too loud. Every sound amplified—car engines, distant sirens, the faint hum of city life continuing as if nothing had just shifted permanently.
You barely remembered unlocking your car. You only remembered driving. The road to the lake house blurred beneath you, your thoughts spiraling in chaotic loops. Abandoned car. Near the water. Not found yet. You told yourself you just needed to see it. To confirm it. To prove that this wasn’t what your mind was already screaming. As you turned down the familiar gravel drive, your breath caught.
Red and blue lights. Everywhere. Police cruisers lined the driveway. Yellow tape fluttered in the wind. News vans were parked crookedly along the road, cameras already angled toward the house like vultures circling something fresh.
Your stomach dropped. “No,” you whispered.
You barely put the car in park before stumbling out, heart slamming violently against your ribs. Officers moved around the property, radios crackling. Someone was speaking into a camera just beyond the tape.
“…body discovered earlier this afternoon at a private residence…”
Your ears rang. And then you saw it. Two men in gloves. A stretcher. A black body bag being carried carefully down the front steps of the lake house. Your lake house. The one Hiromi owned. The one you were supposed to spend the weekend in together. The one you left Suguru in.
The world tilted. The air left your lungs so violently you doubled over. A sharp, acidic wave rose from your stomach before you could stop it. You stumbled forward, barely making it to the edge of the gravel before you collapsed to your knees.
You vomited onto the ground, body convulsing, tears spilling uncontrollably down your face. The taste burned. Your hands dug into the dirt, grounding yourself as the truth crashed into you in merciless waves.
Geto is dead. Dead. And he was found here. Where you left him. Your body shook so violently you couldn’t steady yourself. A strangled sound left your throat—half sob, half disbelief. Officers nearby turned at the noise. “Ma’am?” someone called out.
You couldn’t answer. You could only stare at the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance. The zipper of the body bag was sealed tight. Final. Absolute. Your last memory of him flickered in your mind—dim light, quiet voice, the way he’d said You know where to find me.
And now he had been found. At your husband’s lake house. Where you had driven away. You felt it then—deep, sickening clarity. The last confirmed person to see him alive. You. The location tied directly to your marriage. The affair now public, inevitable. This wasn’t just scandal. This was motive.
——————————————————
Hiromi adjusted his cufflinks before stepping into the conference room.
The glass walls reflected the city skyline behind him—sharp lines, clean edges, power built in steel and precision. That was the kind of life he understood. Ordered. Predictable. Contained.
Around the table sat members of his firm—faces equally accomplished, equally ambitious.
Across from him was Kento Nanami, reviewing case notes with quiet focus. Beside him, leaning back with an amused glint in his eyes, sat Utahime Iori—though today he was dressed like a corporate shark instead of an investigator. Further down the table, Shoko Ieiri scrolled through documents, analytical as ever.
Hiromi closed the file in front of him. “I’ll be delegating the Morita case,” he said calmly. The room stilled. Nanami looked up first. “Delegating?”
“Yes.” Hiromi’s tone was steady. Decisive. “Effective next quarter, I’ll be reducing my caseload.” Utahime raised a brow. “You? Slowing down? Should we call a press conference?”Hiromi ignored the teasing. “I’ve realized,” he continued, hands folded neatly in front of him, “that the pace I’ve maintained isn’t sustainable long-term.”
Nanami studied him. “Burnout?”
“No,” Hiromi replied evenly. “Reprioritization.” Shoko’s gaze sharpened slightly. “That’s… unexpected.” Hiromi allowed himself the faintest breath of something softer. “My wife and I are planning to expand our family.”
There it was. The shift in the room was immediate. Utahime blinked. “You’re serious.”
“Yes.” Nanami leaned back slightly, nodding once. “That’s good.” Shoko smiled faintly. “About time.” Hiromi’s expression didn’t change much, but something in his shoulders eased. “I’ve spent years mastering outcomes,” he said quietly. “Winning cases. Controlling variables. Ensuring there are no surprises.” His gaze drifted briefly to the city beyond the glass. “But that’s not a life. That’s maintenance.”
Nanami folded his hands. “You’ve earned the right to step back.” It was true. Hiromi Higuruma wasn’t just successful—he was feared in courtrooms. If there was a man who could dismantle a prosecution piece by piece, reframe a narrative, convince a jury to question their own certainty—It was him. If someone could get you out of a crime, even when the odds were impossible— It was Hiromi.
Precision. Control. Strategy. He didn’t lose. And yet, as he stood there in that polished glass tower, speaking about children and slowing down, there was something unguarded in his tone. “I want to be present,” he said. “Not just effective.” Utahime leaned forward slightly, grin faint but curious. “She must be thrilled.”
Hiromi allowed himself a small nod. “She is.” And in that moment, he believed it. He believed the shift was real. That he was turning toward something better. That the life he was building was solid. Stable. Safe.
He had no idea that miles away, flashing lights reflected off lake water. That reporters were already circling. That his name would soon be tied to something far uglier than a courtroom loss.
Hiromi gathered his files. “Prepare the transition briefs,” he instructed. “I’ll review them before end of day.” Control.
Order. Certainty. He walked out of the conference room confident in all three. Completely unaware that the next case attached to his name wouldn’t be one he chose—It would be the one coming for his marriage.
——————————————
The second time they brought you in, they didn’t pretend. No polite hallway walk. No soft reassurances. Your heels echoed too loudly against the tile as you were escorted down a longer corridor. Doors passed. Locked. Windowless.
Your pulse was erratic. You loved him. You did. Yes, it was wrong. Yes, it was reckless. But you would never—never—kill him. The idea made your stomach churn.
The door opened. This wasn’t an interview room. This was a box. Gray walls. A single metal table. A camera blinking red in the corner. An interrogation room.
You sat. The door opened again. In walked Satoru Gojo. No smile. Behind him entered a woman in a sleek blazer, heels precise, expression unreadable. Mei Mei. And behind her— A woman who looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
Blonde hair loose. Eyes bloodshot. Hands trembling at her sides. Yuki Tsukumo. Yuki stared at you like she wanted to scream. You didn’t understand why. Gojo took his seat. Mei Mei sat across from you, folding her hands calmly. Yuki didn’t sit.
She stood behind them, breathing unevenly. “This is a formal interrogation,” Gojo said evenly. “Suguru Geto has been pronounced deceased.” Your chest caved in. Mei Mei slid a folder forward. “You were the last confirmed person to see him alive,” she said smoothly. “At a property belonging to your husband.”
“I didn’t kill him,” you whispered immediately. “I loved him.” The words slipped out again.
Yuki made a sound. Sharp. Broken. You looked at her. Her jaw tightened violently. “Loved him?” she repeated under her breath. Gojo shot her a look. But it was too late. Yuki stepped forward suddenly, palms hitting the table. “You loved him?” she snapped, voice cracking. “You destroy someone’s life and call it love?”
You flinched. “I didn’t—”
“Detective,” Mei Mei warned softly. Yuki’s hands were shaking now. Not with anger. With devastation. She looked like she was seconds from breaking. Gojo stood. “Step outside,” he said firmly. Yuki stared at you one more time—eyes full of something raw and unbearable—before she turned abruptly and left the room.
The door shut hard. Silence returned. You looked between Gojo and Mei Mei, heart racing. “What is this?” you whispered. Mei Mei’s expression remained composed. “Focus,” she said gently. Gojo leaned forward.
The room felt smaller the second Gojo opened the new folder. He didn’t slide a photo across immediately this time. He watched you first. Measured your breathing. Your trembling hands. “This wasn’t an accident,” he said quietly. Your throat tightened.
Mei Mei’s voice was smooth but colder now. “The scene was… chaotic.” You swallowed. “What does that mean?” Gojo leaned back in his chair slightly. “It means this wasn’t a quiet death,” he said. “It wasn’t premeditated. It wasn’t clean.” Your pulse spiked.
“He didn’t just fall,” Mei Mei continued. “He was struck. Multiple times.” Your stomach dropped. “Blunt force trauma to the head,” Gojo said evenly. “Repeated. Aggressive.” Your vision blurred.
“No,” you whispered. “There were signs of a struggle,” Mei Mei added. “Furniture overturned. Glass shattered. Blood spatter indicating movement.” Your breathing became shallow, panicked.
“He fought back,” Gojo said quietly. “But whoever did this was close. Close enough to be let inside. Close enough to argue.” The word hung there. Argue.
“You ended the affair that night,” Gojo continued. “You told him you were leaving him.”
“Yes,” you cried. “But I didn’t touch him. I left.”
“He was found in the living room,” Mei Mei said. “Near the fireplace.” Your heart nearly stopped. The fireplace poker. It flashed in your memory. Heavy. Metal. Decorative.
“It was used as the weapon,” Gojo said softly. The air left your lungs. “He was struck until…” Gojo paused. “…until the force caused catastrophic damage.” You felt bile rise in your throat.
“It wasn’t one blow,” Mei Mei said quietly. “It was rage.” Silence swallowed the room.
You covered your mouth with shaking hands. “I loved him,” you choked out. “I would never—never—do something like that.” Gojo didn’t blink.
“Crimes of passion,” he said, voice steady, “are often committed by people who say exactly that.” Your body felt numb. “There were no signs of forced entry,” Mei Mei said. “Which means whoever did this—he let them in.”
Your mind raced violently. He let them in. He knew them. He trusted them. Your breathing hitched. “Did anyone else know you were there that night?” Gojo asked. “No,” you whispered.“Did your husband?” he pressed. Your eyes widened. “No.” Mei Mei and Gojo exchanged a look you couldn’t read. “You left him alive,” Gojo said. “You’re certain.”
“Yes.”
“And you never went back?”
“No!” The camera’s red light blinked steadily in the corner.
You felt like it was watching your panic instead of recording your innocence. “Then someone came after you left,” Mei Mei said calmly. The implication was worse than accusation. Someone else had motive. Someone else had rage.
Someone else had known. Your thoughts spiraled. The fireplace. The overturned furniture. The repeated blows. That wasn’t an accident. That wasn’t random. That was someone who lost control. Gojo stood slowly. “Until we confirm your alibi, you remain a person of interest.”
The words landed like a gavel strike. Not charged. Not arrested. But not safe. And as you sat there shaking, one horrifying thought began to settle in your mind: If this was rage… Then someone loved him too.
The door shut behind Satoru Gojo and Mei Mei.
Silence swallowed the interrogation room.
You lowered your head into your hands, elbows resting on the cold metal table. Your thoughts were spiraling too fast to grab onto any single one.
Blunt force trauma. Multiple strikes. Crime of passion. You tried to breathe. You didn’t kill him.
You didn’t. The door creaked open. You didn’t look up at first. Footsteps. Slow. Controlled. You lifted your head. Standing in the doorway was Yuki Tsukumo.
You frowned in confusion. She held a small paper cup of water. Her face looked different now. Not shattered. Empty. She walked in without asking permission and closed the door behind her. You blinked. “I thought—”
She didn’t answer. She stepped closer and placed the cup gently in front of you. “Drink,” she said quietly. Your throat was dry. You reached for it. The second your fingers brushed the cup—
Cold water cascaded over your head. You gasped sharply as it soaked your hair, your blouse, dripping down your face and neck. Before you could react—
Your head slammed against the table. The impact stunned you. A metallic ring filled your ears. Pain exploded across your cheek as a fist connected with the right side of your face.
Another blow. And another. “You ruined everything!” Yuki screamed. You tasted copper. “You destroyed my life!” Her voice cracked with something feral. You barely managed to raise your arms before another strike glanced across your jaw. Your chair scraped violently against the floor.
“I loved him!” she shouted, voice breaking. “He was my husband!” The word froze you.
Husband. Your vision blurred. “I built a life with him!” she sobbed, gripping your collar. “And you— you were just something reckless he couldn’t walk away from!”
Your head snapped back again as she shoved you down into the table. You heard the door burst open. “Yuki!” Gojo’s voice cut through the chaos.
Hands grabbed her from behind, pulling her backward as she thrashed. “You think you loved him?” she screamed at you through tears. “You think you knew him?”
Blood dripped from your nose onto the metal table. Your ears rang. Your cheek burned. “I will make sure you pay for this!” she shrieked. Gojo restrained her, his jaw tight now — not calm, not amused. “Get her out,” he ordered. Yuki struggled violently for another moment before the male officers dragged her out of the room.
The door slammed shut again. Silence returned. But it felt different now. Heavier. You lifted your head slowly. Blood streaked the table. Your reflection in the metal surface looked like someone you didn’t recognize.
He had a wife. You knew. But not like this. Not like the woman who just tried to claw your face apart. Geto had told you it was over.
He said the papers were being drafted.
He said they were separated in everything but name.
He said it was quiet, mutual, inevitable.
He said he was choosing you. But the way Yuki screamed… The way she shook… The way she hit you— That was not a woman preparing for divorce. That was a wife blindsided.
Your chest began to rise and fall rapidly. Not just from pain. From something colder. Something calculating. You slowly lifted your head, blood still trailing from your nose.
The door opened. Satoru Gojo stepped inside again. His expression had shifted. “You’re going to need medical attention,” he said evenly. You wiped at your mouth with trembling fingers.
“You didn’t know he was married,” he added, studying you. You shook your head. “No,” you said hoarsely. Then paused. “Yes.” Gojo’s brows barely lifted.
“I knew he was married,” you corrected, voice gaining strength despite the blood. “But he told me they were divorcing. That it was finished.”
Gojo didn’t interrupt. “But judging by her reaction,” you continued, swallowing hard, “that does not seem to be the case.” The room felt sharp again.
Clear. You slowly stood from the chair. Your knees wobbled, but you stayed upright.
“She is setting me up,” you said. Gojo’s gaze sharpened slightly. “That’s an accusation.”
“She attacked me in your interrogation room,” you snapped. “She has motive. She has rage. And now she has a dead husband.” Silence. Your heart was racing, but your voice steadied. “I did not kill him.”
Gojo crossed his arms. “You were there.”
“And so was she,” you fired back. “Emotionally. Legally. Financially.” Gojo didn’t confirm or deny. You took a slow breath. “I want my lawyer.” There it was.
The shift. Gojo exhaled slowly — not frustrated, not surprised. Just… resigned. “Of course,” he said. He stepped aside, clearing the path to the wall phone. Your hands were shaking as you reached for it. The receiver felt heavier than it should have. You dialed the number from memory.
It rang once. Twice. Then—“Hiromi.” Your voice cracked. Silence on the other end. Then his voice — calm, steady, controlled. “What happened?” You closed your eyes.
