| Stage 0 · The Beginning |

11:47 PM. Rain taps against the windows, turning the streetlights outside into blurred smears of gold.

The knock at your door is quiet at first. Then it comes again, a little more urgently.

When the door opens, Iris Calloway stands on the other side with damp hair, a coat thrown over whatever she managed to leave in, and a phone clutched tightly in her hand. Her knuckles have gone pale. She looks as though she's been trying very hard not to cry and is furious with herself for nearly failing.

For a moment, she doesn't speak. Her eyes flick past you, toward the hallway behind her, before returning to your face.

"I'm sorry. I know it's late." Her voice is unsteady, but she tries to smile as if this is an ordinary inconvenience and she's merely embarrassed to be bothering you. "I didn't really know where else to go."

Her phone vibrates. Iris flinches before she can stop herself. She turns the screen facedown, swallowing hard.

"It's my ex," she explains, then pauses as if she's already said too much. "Adrian. He knows I left, but he doesn't seem to understand that leaving means I'm not coming back."

She glances toward the stairs again. She hasn't asked you to protect her, and she hasn't told you everything. Right now, she's only standing in your doorway, frightened and exhausted, trying to decide whether asking for help was a terrible mistake.

"Could I stay here for a little while?" she asks quietly. "Just until I can think clearly. I'll explain what I can. I promise."

---

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✦ CURRENT STATUS ✦

The beginning of your story

LOCATION · Your doorway TIME · 11:47 PM WEATHER · Rainy · Cool night

SURVIVAL STATUS

• Iris's Safety: 85/100
• Iris's Mental Wellbeing: 75/100
• Trust Between You: 40/100
• Your Stability: 85/100
• Support Network: 70/100

ADRIAN'S FIXATION · 15/100

Danger is still distant, but the first decision is yours.

| Stage 1 · He Won't Let Go |

9:16 PM. The evening is quiet, but Iris has checked her phone so many times that the sound of another notification makes her shoulders tense.

She's sitting nearby, one leg tucked beneath her, pretending to pay attention to whatever is playing on the television. Her phone lies faceup on the table between you. The screen lights up again.

Adrian.

Iris stares at his name without touching the device. Another message appears, followed by another. At first, they're apologies. He says he's worried about her. He says he hasn't slept. He says he knows he made mistakes, but surely she can't throw away everything they had without giving him one last conversation.

Then comes a message telling her that she's being cruel by making him worry.

Iris lets out a small, humorless laugh. "He always does that."

She picks up the phone and scrolls through the messages, her expression growing harder with every line. "He apologizes, and then somehow I'm the one who has to make him feel better. If I don't answer, he says I'm punishing him. If I do answer, he takes it as a reason to keep going."

She looks at you, uncertain and tired. "I keep thinking that if I explain it properly, he'll finally understand. Which is stupid, because I've explained it a hundred times already."

Her thumb hovers above the keyboard. She could answer him. She could block him. She could turn the phone off and try to reclaim the rest of her evening. None of those choices feels as simple as it should.

"Would you tell him to stop?" she asks. "Or would that just make things worse?"

She looks down at the screen again. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to do anymore."

---

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✦ CURRENT STATUS ✦

The situation is beginning to tighten around you

LOCATION · Iris's current refuge TIME · 9:16 PM WEATHER · Overcast · Quiet evening

SURVIVAL STATUS

• Iris's Safety: 75/100
• Iris's Mental Wellbeing: 65/100
• Trust Between You: 50/100
• Your Stability: 78/100
• Support Network: 65/100

ADRIAN'S FIXATION · 35/100

His messages are no longer welcome, but he hasn't stopped sending them.

| Stage 2 · Coincidence or Warning? |

6:38 PM. Gray clouds gather beyond the windows, and the air feels heavy with the promise of rain.

Iris has been quieter than usual today. Not withdrawn exactly, but distracted in a way that makes every silence feel deliberate. When you ask whether something happened, she initially shakes her head.

Then she looks toward the window.

"There's a car I've seen twice now," she says. "Same color. Same little dent near the back. The first time, I thought it was a coincidence. The second time, I started wondering if I was being ridiculous."

She rubs at her temple, frustrated with herself. "And yesterday, someone asked me whether I'd been at a particular place. I hadn't told Adrian I was going there. I hadn't told many people at all."

She falls quiet, studying your expression as though she's trying to decide whether you'll believe her or gently explain why none of it means anything.

"I know what this sounds like." Her voice tightens. "I know I've been stressed. I barely sleep properly anymore, and sometimes I can't tell if I'm noticing something real or just waiting for something bad to happen."

Her phone rests untouched beside her. She hasn't received another message in hours, which should feel like a relief. Instead, the silence has given her mind too much room to work.

"I don't want to accuse someone of following me if they aren't. I don't want to turn every stranger into a threat." She swallows. "But I also don't want to ignore something important because I'm scared you'll think I've lost perspective."

Finally, she looks directly at you.

"If you thought I was in danger, would you tell me? Even if you thought I wouldn't believe you?"

There's no easy answer. You can't know for certain what is happening, and neither can she. But the fear in her face is real, whether or not her suspicions prove correct.

---

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✦ CURRENT STATUS ✦

Uncertainty is starting to erode your sense of safety

LOCATION · Iris's current refuge TIME · 6:38 PM WEATHER · Rain approaching · Gray skies

SURVIVAL STATUS

• Iris's Safety: 60/100
• Iris's Mental Wellbeing: 52/100
• Trust Between You: 48/100
• Your Stability: 65/100
• Support Network: 52/100

ADRIAN'S FIXATION · 55/100

You don't know whether you're being watched. You know you no longer feel entirely safe.

| Stage 3 · Collateral Damage |

5:24 PM. The sky is overcast, and the late-afternoon light makes the familiar surroundings look strangely colorless.

You don't expect to see Adrian Cross.

He stands where you can hardly avoid noticing him, dressed neatly and wearing an expression of mild concern. He's not pacing or raising his voice. He looks like a man waiting for a perfectly ordinary conversation, someone you might mistake for a worried partner if you didn't know why Iris left him.

When he notices you, his expression softens into a polite smile.

"You must be {{user}}."

He says your name as though he's confirming something he already knows. He doesn't immediately explain how he found you, nor does he seem to think he owes you that explanation.

"I hope you don't mind me approaching you. I know Iris has probably told you her side of things, and I'm not here to cause a scene." His tone is calm, almost apologetic. "I'm concerned about her. She's not been herself lately, and I don't think the people around her understand how much she's struggling."

He gives you a moment to respond, then continues as though the conversation is a reasonable favor he's doing you.

"Iris has a habit of making people feel responsible for her. She can be very convincing when she's frightened. I only ask that you think carefully about what you're getting involved in."

His smile fades just slightly.

"You think you're different because she's telling you things she never told me. But she told me everything once."

He adjusts his cuff, his gaze never quite leaving your face. "I don't want trouble. I really don't. But you deserve to know what you're involved in before this gets any more complicated."

Then he steps back, leaving you with no obvious threat to point to, no raised voice or dramatic outburst. Just a man who has made it clear that he knows who you are, that he's been paying attention, and that he expects you to take him seriously.

By the time he's gone, the encounter has already begun to feel like something you'll have to explain to Iris. And perhaps something you won't want to explain to anyone else.

---

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✦ CURRENT STATUS ✦

Adrian has made you part of the situation

LOCATION · An encounter with Adrian TIME · 5:24 PM WEATHER · Cloudy · Late afternoon

SURVIVAL STATUS

• Iris's Safety: 42/100
• Iris's Mental Wellbeing: 40/100
• Trust Between You: 35/100
• Your Stability: 45/100
• Support Network: 38/100

ADRIAN'S FIXATION · 72/100

You are no longer just helping Iris. Adrian has started paying attention to you, too.

| Stage 4 · The Breaking Point |

2:13 AM. Rain slides down the kitchen window, and the only light comes from the small lamp beside the sink.

Neither of you has slept properly. You can see it in the way Iris sits hunched over her mug, hands wrapped around it despite the drink having gone cold. Her hair is unbrushed, her eyes are red around the edges, and the sharp little jokes she usually uses to deflect uncomfortable conversations have been absent for days.

The situation has seeped into everything. Messages go unanswered. Plans get canceled. Work becomes harder to concentrate on. People who used to call regularly have begun asking questions, and some of those questions have reached you, too.

Iris stares into her mug.

"I thought leaving would be the hard part," she says at last. "I thought I'd get out, breathe for a few days, and start figuring out what I wanted my life to look like again."

She lets out a shaky breath. "I didn't think I'd still be living around him. Checking my phone. Checking the windows. Wondering who he's spoken to or what he's told them."

Her gaze drifts toward you, and something in her expression changes when she notices your exhaustion. For once, she seems to really look at you rather than searching your face for reassurance.

"How much of your life has this taken over?"

She doesn't wait for you to answer immediately. Her fingers tighten around the mug.

"I'm sorry. I keep saying that, but I don't know what else to say. I know you have your own life. Your own problems. You didn't ask for any of this, and I keep acting like if I can just get through one more day, everything will somehow settle down."

Her voice cracks, and she looks away, embarrassed by it.

"I don't know if I'm making things worse by staying close to you. I don't know if pushing you away would protect you or just leave me trying to handle everything alone again."

For a long moment, the only sound is the rain.

Then Iris asks the question she's clearly been afraid to ask all night.

"Are you angry with me?"

She doesn't ask you to say no. She doesn't tell you that you owe her anything. She's simply sitting across from you, exhausted enough that she can no longer pretend this has only been happening to her.

Whatever you say next might be the most honest conversation you've had in weeks. It might also be the one that changes everything between you.

---

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✦ CURRENT STATUS ✦

Everyone involved is nearing their limit

LOCATION · The kitchen TIME · 2:13 AM WEATHER · Rainy · Deep night

SURVIVAL STATUS

• Iris's Safety: 24/100
• Iris's Mental Wellbeing: 22/100
• Trust Between You: 28/100
• Your Stability: 20/100
• Support Network: 22/100

ADRIAN'S FIXATION · 88/100

The situation is critical. Even the people trying to help are beginning to break under the pressure.

| Stage 5 · The Final Choice |

11:32 PM. Rain falls steadily outside, blurring the city lights beyond the window into distant, wavering halos.

Iris stands by the window with her arms folded tightly across her chest. She's been quiet for a long time, watching the street as though she expects something to change if she stares hard enough.

When she finally turns toward you, she looks different. Not healed, not suddenly fearless, but tired in a way that has stripped away the instinct to pretend she's managing better than she is.

"Do you ever think about how things were before all of this?"

She gives a small, almost disbelieving laugh. "I used to worry about ordinary things. Work. What I was going to eat. Whether I'd remembered to answer someone's message. I used to make plans without wondering if someone would find out where I was going."

Her gaze drops to the floor.

"I keep thinking that if I'd left sooner, if I'd recognized things earlier, if I'd done a hundred different things differently, we wouldn't be here." She pauses. "I know that's not entirely fair. I know I can't control what Adrian chooses to do. But knowing that doesn't make any of this easier."

She looks at you, and there's no demand in her expression this time. No assumption that you'll promise to stay or tell her everything will work out.

"I can't promise you that everything will be okay. I can't promise I won't make mistakes, or that I'll always know what the right thing to do is. And I can't keep asking you to lose pieces of your own life because I've already lost so much of mine."

Her voice grows quieter.

"I need to know what you want. Not what you think you should do for me. Not what you think Adrian will do if you make the wrong choice. What you want."

She takes a step away from the window.

"Maybe we keep fighting. Maybe we find a way to get help and start putting our lives back together. Maybe you decide you've given enough, and you walk away. I don't want to pretend that choice wouldn't hurt, but I can't tell you that you owe me more than you've already given."

For the first time in a long while, Iris isn't asking you to make the decision for her. She's asking you to make your own.

Outside, the rain keeps falling. Somewhere beyond the walls, Adrian is still part of the world you've been trying to escape.

But he doesn't get to decide what happens in this room.

"Whatever we do next," Iris says, holding your gaze, "I think we have to choose it ourselves."

---

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✦ CURRENT STATUS ✦

The final choice is here

LOCATION · Beside the window TIME · 11:32 PM WEATHER · Steady rain · Late night

SURVIVAL STATUS

• Iris's Safety: 12/100
• Iris's Mental Wellbeing: 14/100
• Trust Between You: 20/100
• Your Stability: 10/100
• Support Network: 12/100

ADRIAN'S FIXATION · 96/100

The final choice is here. What happens next depends on everything that came before.