Ficool

The Keeper of Love

Inconspicuous_001
14
chs / week
The average realized release rate over the past 30 days is 14 chs / week.
--
NOT RATINGS
154
Views
VIEW MORE

Chapter 1 - Keeper of Love

They found her in the tub.

Eyes open. Lips blue. Hair fanned out like ink in water.

But the worst part?

Her hands were stitched together.

Nails through the palms. Thread black. Tight enough to twist the fingers inward, like a lover's final embrace.

There was no note this time.

Just the smell of lavender in the air and the faint sound of humming still echoing in the pipes.

They said it was suicide.

But the sister - the one who lived down the hall - knew better.

She had seen the girl before.

Smiling at the window.

Always smiling.

---

He met her at a café.

She wore white. Smelled like vanilla.

Said her name was Clara.

They talked about the weather. About music. About nothing.

He asked her out. She said yes.

Too fast.

Too easy.

He didn't mind.

He liked how she knew what he wanted before he said it. How she showed up at his office with lunch. How she cleaned his apartment when he was too tired.

Then came the texts.

"You didn't answer me."

"Who were you talking to?"

"You're mine."

He laughed it off. Thought it was cute.

Then she showed up at his mother's house.

With a cake.

And a knife in her purse.

He broke it off.

That night, his car wouldn't start.

He walked home.

She was waiting in his bed.

Naked.

Smiling.

"I fixed everything."

He never saw her again.

But he still hears her voice.

In the shower.

In his dreams.

---

The landlady noticed first.

The smell.

Rot. Decay.

She knocked. No answer.

Called the police.

They broke the door down.

The apartment was spotless.

Except for the bedroom.

Walls painted red.

Not with paint.

With skin.

Thin, stretched, stitched like a quilt.

A shrine in the center.

Photos.

Letters.

Hair.

Toenails.

And a single dress - white, untouched.

They never found the body.

Only the smell.

And the feeling.

Like someone was watching.

From the shadows.

Smiling.

---

They think she's a ghost.

Others say a ghost story made real.

But the detectives - the ones who've seen more than they should - they have a name for her.

"The Keeper of Love."

She doesn't care who you are.

Or what you've done.

If you fall in love - even for a second - she sees it.

And she wants to keep it.

Forever.

In her own way.

Some say she was once someone's lover.

Others say she was never real at all.

Just a sickness.

A hunger.

A whisper in the dark.

"I love you."

"Only me."

"Forever."