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??The Hollow Man

Kreed

I watched her for twenty-three days. Always from a distance. Sometimes from beneath her bed.

She never noticed the shadow that moved when her lights flicked out. Never questioned the scent of sulfur in her coffee or the faint buzz in her teeth when I followed too close. I was careful. Patient. That was what made the first cut so sweet.

Ember Carr.

Daughter of the woman I gutted like a deer in autumn. Same eyes. Same mouth. Same fucking fire. And worse, same blood. The kind that opened doors meant to stay shut.

People called me a killer. A psychopath. A shadow crawling out of the cracks in the justice system.

They were wrong. I was the cure.

Every name engraved into my mind was tied to the Gate. Every Watcher, every Seeker, every blood-drenched prophet who thought they were chosen. I didn’t kill for fun. I killed because they tried to keep the world from tearing open, and I wanted to see it split in half.

I wanted the Veil to thin because I wanted the world. I wanted them to bow down to me . I wanted all the power.

So, I killed them.

One by one.

Tonight, she wandered into an alley with someone I sent her way. Tall. Clean jaw. Cheap cologne. She thought he was a witness. In a sense, he was.

A Seeker. Low rank. Loose tongue.

She leaned in, listening too intently. Her face twisted, raw, grief rippling beneath the surface. He was telling her about her mother. About what happened the night I slit open legacy and left it bleeding across the floor.

She wasn’t laughing. She was breaking. And it was fucking beautiful.

From the rooftop across the street, I laid prone. The scope hummed against my eye. The silencer kissed the barrel like a secret. I waited until her eyes started to glass over, like they did when she was little, crying under the kitchen table while her mother begged for mercy.

She didn’t even realize I was watching, how sweet.

How stupid.

The man she was talking to, though? He’d be my message.

I’d tear him apart while she’s still tasting the echo of his voice. Let her feel it. Let her know I was coming.

Slow.

Loving.

I wanted her afraid the next time she dared to breathe.

One breath. One twitch. One memory.

And then… Bang.

The man’s skull split open like overripe fruit. Pink mist sprayed her cheeks. His body collapsed mid-sentence. A smear of brains on brick. A twitching mess at her feet.

She screamed.

Oh, how she screamed. That sound… It went straight to my cock.

Panic. Chaos. I didn’t move. Just watched.

She bolted with hands trembling, red blooming on her palms. Tears streaked her face like rain through ash as she ran away.

Her bloodline was a wound the world should’ve cauterized years ago. I broke her mother. Now I’d burn her, piece by piece.

The justice system tried to cage me. But Dorian Vale? He pried the bars apart. Got me off with a wink and a clause.

Now I was free. And Ember Carr was mine to ruin.

The first shot was a warning. The next will be a lesson. And the last?

A love letter written in gore.