Chapter 10: Echoes in the dark

The clock on the wall ticked, relentless. I watched her—Dr. Isha Mehra—the last bastion between order and chaos. Her eyes held a spark, a fire she tried hard to keep contained. I admired that. It made the game worth playing.

"Why do you fight me so hard?" I asked, voice low, almost gentle.

She exhaled sharply. "Because if I don't, you win. And if you win, what's left for the world? For me?"

I smiled wider. "And yet, here you are. Sitting across from me. Listening. Trying to understand the monster. But monsters… they aren't understood. They're felt. They're feared. They're chaos incarnate."

Her fingers tightened on the clipboard. "Monsters can be cured. Or controlled."

"Cured?" I echoed, eyes gleaming with dark amusement. "You think me broken? Maybe. But what if I'm the cure? The mirror reflecting the world's hypocrisy, its lies, its cruelty? I don't need saving. I need acknowledgement."

She met me, unflinching. "You want someone to admit that you're right? That the rules are broken?"

"Yes." I leaned forward, voice a whisper. "Not just broken. Poisoned. And I'm the only antidote. But the price? Everything."

She laughed softly, a sad sound. "You think you're the hero of your own story?"

"No," I said. "I'm the villain they never see coming. The chaos they mistake for madness. But the truth? Madness is just logic seen through a cracked lens."

Her gaze faltered, a hint of something vulnerable slipping through.

"You fascinate me," she confessed, voice barely audible.

"And you," I said, "are the tether pulling me back from the abyss. Yet every time you reach out, I wonder if you're trying to save me... or be consumed by me."

Her breath hitched, eyes searching mine.

"Maybe both," she whispered.

Silence settled. A charged pause before I broke it.

"Would you follow me into the darkness, Doctor? Not to save me. But because you want to see what lives there."

Her lips curved into a smile — dangerous, knowing.

"Maybe I already have."

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The line between doctor and patient blurred in that moment, a dance of shadows and truth. She was falling, and I was ready to catch her — or pull her under.