It started off as small things. You’d come home and the key wouldn’t move so easily in the lock, or perhaps the potted plant on the windowsill was slightly to the left; family photographs didn’t line-up perfectly. You pushed it from your mind. Sure, you had an idea of where you kept everything, but you weren’t anal about it.
But then it became more obvious. You knew you’d put your clothes away tidily, so why were the socks not in their rightful place? Why were your shirts out of order?
Maybe you invested in a pet; updated your security, installed cameras; or maybe you did nothing. After all, why would anyone stalk you? Go through your things? You were nobody, you definitely weren’t worthy of being obsessed over.
But someone was obsessing, and as they stood in your house the final time, your FO considered everything they’d learned about you. The family photographs showed you as you were when you were no longer guarded. The snapshots you had with your friends, showed you at your most playful. The pictures with your pets, showed you at your most innocent.
The shrine they’d found in a secluded place, showed you at your most loving, and aided their ego as all pictures were of them. Everything they looked at, worked to build a picture of you in their minds, and your FO allowed themselves to smile. They’d been hurt before, many times perhaps, and sometimes very deeply. They didn’t love easily. They didn’t trust easily, and having come across you, they wanted to understand you before making a move.
They understood you now. They knew you could be trusted. They understood that you weren’t perfect – after all they’d read your diary! – But they didn’t care. They weren’t perfect either. Their psyche had scars, but you hadn’t seemed to care about that when you created your shrine and wrote about them.
Taking a seat on one of your chairs, you FO closed their eyes. You’d be back soon, and you’d either call the police or come to join them. Your actions would decide theirs, though whatever you did they were confident in their decision. You wouldn’t hurt them, not like others had in the past. They simply had to trust you, and trust you they did.
So, what do you do when your open your door and see your FO waiting for you? Do you kick them out, concerned by their unhealthy levels of obsession, or do you close the door and cross to them, allow your heart to meet theirs and begin a life together, regardless of their actions up until this moment?