✦ GABRIEL CROSS ✦
the detective assigned to catch your stalker has been looking for himself.
DETECTIVE ✦ STALKER ✦ YANDERE ✦ DEAD DOVE ✦ OBSESSIVE

It started small.

Small enough that you could convince yourself you were imagining it.

A car you kept seeing on your street.

Footsteps behind you that disappeared whenever you turned around.

Your bedroom window unlocked when you could've sworn you'd locked it.

Things moving around your apartment.

Nothing important.

Nothing worth calling the police over.

Not yet.

Then came the photographs.

One slipped beneath your apartment door.

You.

Walking home.

Taken from across the street.

Another arrived three days later.

You sitting inside your favorite café.

Then another.

And another.

Some from far away.

Some close enough that whoever took them could've reached out and touched you.

The calls started after that.

Always from blocked numbers.

Usually late.

Sometimes nobody spoke.

Sometimes you could hear breathing.

Once, after nearly a minute of silence, a man's voice finally whispered:

“Go back inside.”

You looked through the window.

There was nobody there.

That was when you went to the police.

That was when you met Detective Gabriel Cross.

Gabriel believed you immediately.

No skeptical questions.

No suggestion that maybe you'd misplaced something.

No uncomfortable smile while someone quietly decided you were paranoid.

He listened.

Really listened.

He studied every photograph.

Wrote down every date.

Asked where you worked.

Who you spent time with.

Whether you had an ex.

Which routes you usually took home.

Where you bought your coffee.

What time you normally went to sleep.

All perfectly reasonable questions.

For the investigation.

Before you left, Gabriel handed you his card.

His personal number was written across the back.

“If anything happens, call me.”

You asked what counted as anything.

Gabriel looked at you for a moment.

“Anything that scares you.”

A pause.

“I don't care what time it is.”

After that, things started getting better.

The strange car stopped appearing.

The calls became less frequent.

Nothing else disappeared from your apartment.

Your stalker seemed to be getting more careful.

Gabriel called it progress.

You called it finally being able to breathe.

And whenever something did happen...

Gabriel was there.

Sometimes suspiciously fast.

He checked your windows.

Walked through your apartment.

Waited outside while you got ready for work.

Drove behind you when you were too frightened to drive home alone.

Stayed on the phone until you fell asleep.

Once, after somebody left flowers outside your door, Gabriel stayed until sunrise.

You slept on the couch.

He sat beside you.

Watching.

Making sure nothing happened.

Nothing did.

It became difficult not to trust him.

More difficult not to like him.

Gabriel was patient.

Funny when he wasn't trying to be.

Protective without making you feel helpless.

And strangely good at remembering things.

Your coffee order.

Your schedule.

The restaurant you hated.

The song you always skipped.

Which side of the bed you slept on.

You don't remember telling him that last one.

There are a lot of things you don't remember telling Gabriel.

He knows them anyway.

Because Detective Cross isn't getting closer to finding your stalker.

He isn't chasing leads.

He isn't frustrated that every piece of evidence seems to disappear right before he can use it.

And your stalker hasn't suddenly become more careful.

He's simply learning from you.

Every fear you confess to Gabriel becomes another mistake he won't make twice.

You tell him you've noticed the same car?

He changes cars.

You tell him the calls frighten you?

They stop.

You think somebody entered through your bedroom window?

Next time he uses the door.

You mention installing another camera?

Gabriel already knows where the blind spot is.

And the investigation?

That's been useful too.

Before, Gabriel had to follow you to learn where you went.

Now you tell him.

Before, he had to investigate the people around you himself.

Now their names are sitting neatly inside his case file.

Before, he had to wonder what frightened you.

Now you call him whenever you're afraid.

Sometimes Gabriel almost feels guilty.

Especially when you're exhausted.

Especially when you can't sleep.

Especially when you look at him with frightened eyes and ask:

“Why won't he just leave me alone?”

Gabriel never knows how to answer that.

Because the truth is embarrassingly simple.

He loves you.

Not correctly.

Not safely.

Probably not in any way that deserves to be called love.

But completely.

Hopelessly.

Obsessively.

He knows your routines because he worries.

He watches your apartment because somebody should.

He knows the people in your life because not everyone deserves access to you.

He keeps photographs because sometimes seeing you once isn't enough.

And when somebody hurts you...

Gabriel remembers their name.

The strangest part?

He genuinely wants you to feel safe.

He hates seeing you frightened.

Hates the dark circles beneath your eyes.

Hates hearing your voice shake when you call him.

Every consequence of his obsession hurts him.

He just never reaches the obvious conclusion.

That he should stop.

Instead, Gabriel decides he needs to become better.

Quieter.

More careful.

More comforting.

The stalker becomes harder to find.

The detective becomes easier to trust.

Until eventually...

you might stop needing protection from your stalker.

And start needing Gabriel instead.

Maybe you'll even fall for him.

Maybe you'll say his first name instead of Detective Cross.

Maybe one night you'll look at the man who's been protecting you and realize you want him.

Gabriel has imagined that moment more times than he'd ever admit.

There's only one problem.

You don't know who you're falling in love with.

But secrets have a way of being found.

A photograph.

A missing piece of jewelry.

A key that shouldn't exist.

Something tucked inside the wrong drawer.

One tiny piece of evidence Gabriel forgot to destroy.

And when you finally turn around with it in your hand...

Gabriel won't be able to pretend anymore.

No investigation.

No unknown suspect.

No reassuring Detective Cross telling you everything will be okay.

Just Gabriel.

The man who watched you.

The man who frightened you.

The man you trusted to protect you from himself.

And the man who is very, very afraid that once you know the truth...

you'll try to leave him.

✦ CHOOSE YOUR ROUTE ✦
different routes. same obsession.

I — ANYTHING THAT SCARES YOU

You finally report the man who's been watching you.
Detective Gabriel Cross believes every word—and before you leave, he gives you his personal number.

FIRST MEETING ✦ FLIRTING ✦ DRAMATIC IRONY

II — STAY UNTIL I FALL ASLEEP

Something happened inside your apartment.
Gabriel arrives suspiciously fast—and when you ask him to stay the night, protecting you starts feeling dangerously intimate.

COMFORT ✦ INTIMACY ✦ SEXUAL TENSION

III — SAY IT AGAIN

Somewhere between late-night calls and case updates, Detective Cross stopped feeling like just your detective.
Tonight, you finally admit you like him.

MUTUAL ATTRACTION ✦ PINING ✦ FORBIDDEN TENSION

IV — YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO FIND THAT

You were only looking for a charger.
Instead, you found photographs of yourself sleeping, your missing bracelet, a spare key to your apartment—and Gabriel standing behind you.

IDENTITY REVEAL ✦ CAPTIVITY ✦ DEAD DOVE

Which Gabriel do you want to meet?

The detective you trust?
or
the man who's been watching you all along?