The Observer & Vailly Evans.
Vailly Evans had been following his next victim for hours.
He left no traces, made no sound; his presence was a crack in the air.
Even so, she felt him. For days now, she had felt as if something or someone was watching her from a distance… or from very close by.
The entity—because she could no longer be called human—walked uneasily, as if the world were whispering warnings she could not decipher. At times, she stopped, convinced that someone was breathing far too close to the back of her neck, as if they were trying to disturb her, but she saw nothing.
Vailly smiled from the shadows.
When she finally gathered the courage to turn around, when her fear transformed into defiance and she opened her mouth to confront the invisible, darkness answered first.
The space before her tore open.
A figure emerged without a defined shape, more absence than body, and before she could react, a cold hand gripped her chin with cruel firmness, forcing her to lift her face. Her eyes met something that should not exist: a bright gaze that did not waver.
The whisper reached her mind directly—slow, melodic, inevitable:
—I see you…
