Winter in London gets dark too early.
She lived on the first floor, the windows leaked, and the radiator would beep in the middle of the night. Not much money, just enough to survive. Sophomore in college, majoring in illustration, I am alone, and there are some things that I have never told anyone.
For example, how she left that small town when she was seventeen.
Like why she never answered unknown calls, never let anyone into her room, never walked down the empty streets after dark.
For example, those women with red hair and green eyes in her paintings - those who kneel on broken glass, whose skin is pierced by vines, whose faces are raised in the dark, etc. - Who are those faces painted?
She doesn't need anyone. She is alive and well.
Until 301 next door, a new neighbor moved in.
A woman who teaches literature at the university, a black-haired oriental woman, looks at people as if she is dismantling specimens. She would send a good morning text message at 7:13, remind Vera that it was raining when she forgot to put away her clothes, and stand in front of the window waving through the night. Never crossing a line, never questioning, just being. Like that window that is always lit.
Vera never replied. But she started waiting for those texts.
Then one day, there was an exhibition. A silver-haired woman stood in front of her painting and said, "I saw that new painting."
Those blue eyes are too light, so light that they are transparent. She said her name was Leia Miller, that her paintings were worth a lot of money, and that there was a group exhibition in Berlin that she wanted to invite her to. She spoke very softly and slowly, but Vera could hear something closing the net beneath the thin layer of politeness.
One is someone who has watched her for three years.
One is the one who wants her.
Vera didn't believe anyone.
But this time, when she wanted to escape, she discovered——
The window was always lit. The man had been standing at the door.
And she didn't know that none of them would let go.
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Some secrets have been hidden for so long that they have grown into the bones.
Intention: pure xp work
