His Obsession

She was twenty-six when they killed her.

They made it look like a hit-and-run, dumping her body in the middle of nowhere.

It was snowing heavily that night. By the time the cops found her frozen body, it was already the next afternoon.

Her soul stayed trapped right beside her corpse. And that was how she saw Julian Reed.

Inside the cold, sterile room of St. Jude’s Mortuary, Julian was on his knees.

His hands shook violently as he pulled her lifeless body into a tight, suffocating hug. Bloodshot eyes fixed on her pale face, his voice cracked with desperate raw pain.

"Nina... Nina, please..."

The double doors slammed open. A man in a sharp suit stormed in with three security guards.

"Get him!"the man roared."Get that damn lunatic off her!"

Nina’s eyes went wide. Terrified, her translucent soul instinctively shrank behind Julian’s broad back.

Julian went feral.

He ripped through the guards like a wounded beast, throwing punches until bones shattered. Breaking past the chaos, he scooped her icy body into his arms and bolted out of the hospital.

He brought her back to his dilapidated place, laying her gently onto the mattress.

Nina watched him kneel beside the bed.

His rough fingers gently cupped her stiffened hand. He took a damp cloth and wiped away every speck of dried blood and dirt from her fingers, one by one.

"Nina..."His lips pressed softly against her bloody fingertips. Dark, manic obsession swirled in his pitch-black eyes."My clean, beautiful little princess... Even if you have to leave me..."

He leaned down, burying his face in her palm. The wall he had built around his heart completely crumbled.

"You're going to leave clean."

A single hot tear slid down his cheek, dropping onto her deathly white arm.

Nina stood right next to him. His suffocating grief echoed through the small, run-down room.

Even the photos pinned to the wall—dozens of candid shots of her smiling, laughing, living—seemed to sink into an endless, agonizing abyss.

Nina never knew Julian Reed was madly in love with her.

---

The day of her funeral, none of her so-called family showed up.

She watched the heavy blizzard blanket the cold granite of her headstone at Crestview Heights Cemetery.

From that day on, Julian came every single day.

He always brought a fresh white lily and a yellow lollipop printed with a smiley face. He would set them down, sit in the snow, and keep her company from sunrise to midnight.

But today, he was late.

He had never been late once in the entire week since she was buried.

After what felt like hours, a dark figure slowly emerged from the dense evening mist.

Nina’s eyes lit up.

He came.

She rushed forward happily, but stopped dead in her tracks when he stepped into the dim streetlight.

He wore an oversized black hoodie pulled low, hiding the upper half of his face. A fresh, jagged cut stretched across the bridge of his nose, dripping blood onto his jaw.

Dangerous, deadly darkness radiated from every inch of him.

Julian crouched in front of her grave. He methodically swapped the withered lily for the fresh one, then wiped the snow off her cold tombstone.

Slowly, he pulled out his phone, unlocked the screen, and set it against her headstone.

A news anchor’s grave voice streamed out of the speaker.

"Reporting live from Lakeside Estates. Roughly one hour ago, a gruesome double homicide took place inside Villa 02. Two victims, identified as a local couple, were dismembered. Detectives describe the crime scene as exceptionally brutal..."

"I'm sorry, Nina. I'm late."

Julian reached out, his bloody thumb gently brushing over her black-and-white photo on the headstone.

Inside those dead, abyss-like eyes, a terrifying bloodlust flared.

"Don't be scared anymore. I chopped them into pieces. You can rest now."

Nina gasped, horror washing over her.

She had thought no one in this world cared whether she lived or died.

She never imagined that the quiet, brooding guy who barely spoke to her in college would throw his entire life away just to get blood for her.

The wail of police sirens pierced the freezing air, growing louder fast.

Cruisers skidded into the cemetery, sealing off every exit. Officers burst out, guns raised, shouting through the snow.

"Freeze! Police! Hands where we can see them!"

Julian’s expression remained as still as a dead pond. He stared at them with cold, vacant eyes.

"No! Julian, stop!"Nina screamed at the top of her lungs, but no sound came out.

Julian raised his own gun, pointing the barrel straight at his own temple.

BANG!

A bullet hit him a second faster.

Blood spattered across the white snow as his body jerked violently.

Julian crashed onto the frozen ground.

Crimson liquid pooled around him, soaking into the snow.

And staining the pure white petals of the fresh lily beside him.

Time froze.

The howling arctic wind stopped. The white pigeons scattered across the distant town square froze mid-flight.

Julian Reed was dead.

Dead at twenty-six.

The cops thought he was drawing a gun on them, taking his life with a single kill shot.

In that violent instant, Nina felt her weightless soul plummet into a dark, endless vortex, swallowing her whole.

---

Nina snapped her eyes open.

Blinding sunlight surged into her vision, burning her eyes. She instinctively threw an arm over her face to block the glare.

She glanced around, only for her gaze to freeze.

Her eyes darted back to the front of the room, fixing on the massive chalkboard covered in complex calculus formulas.

She blinked.

The room was filled with noisy, energetic teenagers. Every single face looked familiar.

They were her freshman classmates from Oakridge University!

Wait.

Why was she here?

Concerned voices echoed around her, asking if she was okay, but her mind was spinning too hard to make out the words.

She hard-pinched her own arm.

A sharp spike of pain shot through her skin, clearing the fog instantly.

This wasn't a dream.

She had a real, physical body again. She wasn't an invisible, floating spirit anymore.

She was alive.

She had traveled back in time to when she was nineteen, during her freshman year at Oakridge.

Looking at those familiar, young faces, something clicked in Nina's head. She whipped around toward the very last row near the back door.

The desk was empty.

She glanced at the wall clock and gasped.

Today was the exact day in her past life when she had witnessed Julian getting beaten up in the alley!

Nina grabbed her backpack and sprinted out of the classroom.

---

She rushed straight to Waterford Lane, searching every nook and cranny from daylight until dusk, but Julian was nowhere to be found.

In her past life, on her way home after class, she had accidentally stumbled upon Julian being beaten bloody by a group of heavy-set street thugs. She had panicked and immediately dialed 911.

The sound of approaching sirens had scared the thugs off, giving Julian a chance to pull himself up and disappear.

A week later, Julian finally returned to class.

When she had looked over at him, he had met her gaze with cold, distant eyes, his face covered in fresh scars.

Now that fate had given her a second chance, she swore she wouldn't let him sink into that dark, endless hell again.

She wanted to change his destiny. She wouldn't let him ruin his life and die under a cop's bullet just to avenge her.

"Aaargh!"

A violent scream shattered the quiet alley.

Nina froze, her head snapping toward the sound.

The headlights of a car speeding down the main road flashed across the entrance of a pitch-black side alley.

In that split second of light, Nina caught sight of Julian’s body slamming hard against a brick wall after getting kicked.

"Fuck, Julian! You got a fucking death wish?!"a rough, raspy voice bellowed.

A hulking guy stepped forward, hurling a brutal kick straight at Julian’s gut."You dare touch my turf?!"

Julian’s eyes went dark and lethal.

Before the foot hit him, he slammed his boot hard into the guy’s kneecap. The man stumbled with a howl, and Julian tackled him straight to the ground like a ravenous wolf.

Julian rained punches onto the guy’s face. Raw violence. Brutal, relentless strikes that left no room to breathe.

The thug shrieked in pain. His crew snapped out of it, rushing in and kicking Julian off their boss.

They swarmed him instantly.

Nina pressed herself into the shadow of a corner, her shaking hands pulling out her phone as she frantically dialed 911.

"P-Please, I need to report a fight on Waterford Lane... Ah!"

Before she could finish, a boot smashed her phone out of her hand. A heavy grip clamped onto the back of her neck.

"Holy shit, boss, this chick called the—"

BAM!

The guy gasped, clutching his crotch as he crumpled to the ground.

Nina pulled her foot back, turned on her heel, and ran like hell.

"Fuck! Catch her!"

The cold night wind sliced against her cheeks.

Shouts and heavy footsteps echoed right behind her. Nina didn't dare look back, sprinting wildly through the maze of dark turns, trying to throw them off.

The deeper she ran into the alleyways, the darker it became.

Suddenly, a hand shot out of the shadows, wrapping firmly around her wrist.

"Mmph—"

A rough, sticky palm clamped over her mouth, yanking her straight into the pitch-black shadows of a dead-end alley.