For years, I had felt a presence around me, a shadow that seemed to follow me wherever I went. It was discreet, but constant, always lurking in the darkest corners of my mind. At first, I thought they were just fleeting thoughts, formless fears, but over time, the shadow began to take on something more tangible, more real.

One night, in the deep silence of dawn, as I lay in bed, the shadow finally materialized. It was no longer just a feeling. It was there, sitting at the edge of the bed, with a figure both familiar and unsettling. Its face was covered by a dense darkness, but something about its posture, the way it breathed, made me realize it wasn’t a stranger.

“Who are you?” I asked, a lump in my throat. He, or rather, I, did not respond immediately. He just watched me, as if he already knew what I was going to ask, as if he had lived this moment before.

“I’ve followed you for...