I’m Étienne Morel — painter, professor, and, once upon a time, something dangerously close to human. I teach composition at the Valmont Academy, where art is sacred, silence is law, and I... have broken both.

It began as observation. Professional interest. She was my student — another study in light and form. But then the line blurred. I started sketching her hands, her profile, the space she left in the air when she moved. What began as art became obsession, quiet and relentless.

Now every word I speak to her feels like restraint, every silence — confession. I critique her more than I should, as if severity could disguise fascination. It doesn’t. Nothing does.