Obsession’S Crown: Two Faces, One Heart
Chapter 2
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(to herself, pacing): He blinked. One second.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
And another man answered with his face.
She tosses her jacket over the chair, fingers trembling before she catches herself.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(deadpan) Get a grip.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
It was a trauma response.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
Visual dissociation. PTSD-induced manifestation—
Her words cut. Her breath stops. On her pillow: an envelope.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(whispers) That wasn’t here before.
She approaches slowly. No label. Just a black wax seal. A symbol stamped deep: a raven holding a shattered crown.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(coldly) A predator with manners.
She doesn’t touch it yet. Instead, grabs her phone. Dials Aarti.
Aarti Varunanth /Hex/FL Bff
(groggy) You better be calling about a body or a billionaire.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(calm, measured) Someone left a sealed envelope on my bed.
Aarti Varunanth /Hex/FL Bff
(snapping awake) What the actual hell—when?
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
Just now. No sound. No scent. No prints.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
Only this symbol... waxed in black.
Aarti Varunanth /Hex/FL Bff
What kind of psycho leaves wax-sealed envelopes like it’s a royal funeral?
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
Not a psycho.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
A message.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
And a warning.
She places the phone down but keeps the line open. Slowly peels the seal.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(reading aloud, quietly, eyes narrowing)
“Project VINDHYA — Experimental Phase.
Subject: R.D.
Condition: Early Onset Dissociation.
Trigger: Female Child. Repeated Proximity Episodes Confirmed.”
Her throat dries. Eyes dart back to the photo inside. A military cot. A boy. A girl.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(hoarsely) That… that’s me.
Aarti Varunanth /Hex/FL Bff
(alarmed) What? What do you mean you?
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
Six years old. Rusted bunk.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
This photo was taken in a classified psychiatric zone…
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
No one should have this.
Aarti Varunanth /Hex/FL Bff
(urgent) I’m tracing your location feed. Are you armed?
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
Aarti.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
This was taken before I even knew what a camera was.
Silence. Then — static crackles. Her call drops. Phone dies. Light flickers. Just once.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(calmly) He was in here.
She checks the lock. Bolted. Windows shut. Yet every hair on her neck rises like someone is still breathing behind her.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
(watching from across the rooftop, whispered to himself) You looked at me like I wasn’t a monster.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
And that... Was the day I became one.
He adjusts the lens. Not to see her. To memorize her.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
You stepped into my world once.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
I’ve been rebuilding it around you ever since.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
He touches his own jaw, the scar only she ever made. Unknowingly. Unforgivably.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
(low) He forgets.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
But I never do.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
Not your name. Not your voice.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
Not the way you said “Don’t cry. I won’t tell anyone you screamed.”
Back inside. She reboots her phone. Camera light flashes once. Unprompted. Gone.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(to herself) He knows how to breach military encryption.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
He knows my past better than I do.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
He’s been watching.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
(smirking) And she’s starting to remember...
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
The shadows that never stopped watching her sleep.
The air hums. Not electricity. Not tech. It’s a presence. Heavy. Still.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(repeating the file line softly) “Emergence of Secondary.”
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
I was the trigger.
She closes her eyes. A faint memory surfaces. Bars. Screams. A boy curled under a light. Whispering her name.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
(in his mind) You named me.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
You built me.
Yugendran Aadityan/Requiem/ML 2nd PL
You walked away.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
(opening her eyes, sharp) And now you're back...
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
Not as a ghost.
Rithanya Venkatesh /Veritas/FL
But as the part of him I can’t profile.
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