Alex gets a cryptic DM from a Nina, offering $5,000 for a single day of private photography. Client: Rachael Cavalli. Alex, who grew up with no family and only fleeting memories of late-night cable, vaguely recognizes the name. The money is impossible to refuse.
Rachael leans close. “Look at me. Really look. This is what family feels like. The terror. The devotion. The cage that looks like arms.” Rachael Cavalli - We-re Family Now - APovStory
Not physical at first. Rachael grooms Alex emotionally: midnight talks, shared vulnerabilities, small gifts. She learns Alex’s orphan trauma and frames herself as the solution. “I never had a family either. Let’s stop being alone together.” Alex gets a cryptic DM from a Nina,
The first kiss happens after Alex develops a photo of Rachael laughing—genuinely, not posed. Rachael cries. Says no one has ever captured her real self. That night, intimacy is tender, almost sacred. But afterward, Rachael takes the memory card. “For safekeeping.” The money is impossible to refuse
Alex walks down the hill, no phone, no money, no proof of what happened. Behind them, Rachael watches from the window. She does not chase. She smiles slightly, then turns to Nina: “Find me another one. Start tomorrow.”
Alex finds a locked room. Inside: photo albums of previous protégés—young men and women, all photographers, writers, musicians. All with the same hopeful eyes. All disappeared from public records. The last entry is Julian, dated six years ago. Next to it, a blank page labeled: “Alex – current.”
Alex confronts Rachael. The mask doesn’t drop—it transforms. Rachael admits everything without shame. “Yes, I collect people. I save them. You were nothing before me. You’ll be nothing after. Unless you stay.”