ALL ALONG I WAS THE SERIAL KILLER, BUT THEY NEVER KNEW

The Watcher's Message

The phone doesn’t buzz again.

I stare at the message, thumbs hovering above the screen. My apartment is dim, the only light coming from the hallway — I don’t like overhead lights. They’re too exposing. Shadows offer safety. Comfort. Distance.

I re-read the message.

> You’re good. Too good. Ever consider we’re not the only ones watching?

Not someone is watching. We are watching.

Who the hell is we?

I toss the phone into the sink and turn the faucet on. Let it drown for a few seconds before snatching it back. The screen’s fine. These models can survive water now. Shame.

It was a burner. A number is not linked to anything. I’ve used enough of them to know how the game works. But that text wasn’t from a cop. They wouldn’t tease. They’d raid.

This… this was a challenge.

---

I stay up all night.

Rechecking my files. Rereading my kills. Mapping out timelines. I keep trophies — small ones. A ring, a broken watch, a USB full of incriminating footage. Every victim had a reason. Every death had weight.

There’s no way I’ve slipped.

Except maybe once.

Three months ago. The journalist.

He was the only kill I didn’t plan. He was in the way. He saw too much. He bled too quickly. I burned everything from that night — even the boots I wore. But what if he told someone before he died?

What if someone was there?

---

Morning comes grey and cold. I sip bitter coffee and check my street from behind the curtains. Same trash can. Same parked sedan. Same neighbors pretending they aren’t just as dark as I am in their own ways.

Then I see him.

Leaning against the railing of the building opposite mine.

Black coat. Coffee in hand. Staring directly at my window.

Not moving. Not smiling.

Just watching.

My hand tightens around the mug.

It’s him.

The profiler.

Not officially introduced yet, but I know his type — polished, observant, quiet danger wrapped in charm. The kind who smiles as he reads your sins off your skin.

If he’s already here, it means he suspects something. But why watch from a distance?

Unless…

Unless he doesn’t want to catch me.

He wants to know me.