Dysfunctional

This is Them

It is a domesticated, blissful life. And in subtext, add poisonous.

It's more than obvious that the waking up to sunlight through the curtains lifestyle they now seemingly lead is a public facade.

Their colleagues all coo over how blissful they seems in sickeningly sweet voices that they both decide that they deserve Darwin Awards for not physically shuddering.
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For him, there's no change whatsoever.
Except for the added thrill of having his very own customised human marionette.

First, he whines to no end that she isn't paying him enough attention.

Her being her, she ignores his pleas for adoration.

Then, he starts to emphasise her lack of attention in every word that leaves his mouth and every course of action he takes.

He can see it starting to wear into her.

After a while, he tells her quit her job.

The suggestion is met with an average resistance that he tears down easily by telling her that normal people do that.

Those words, he realises, are his strings to his puppet.

He plays her expertly. He studies her every tick, every flaw. He gathers information on her and stores it in his vast data bank dedicated to this sole purpose.

Harvesting that information as a weapon, he slowly degrades her once confident morale to a pinch of uselessness.

He can feel the tension in the air everyday and he breathes it in like a drug. It's positively intoxicating and forbidden. His manipulation of her is beautiful.
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The whirlwind of destruction and fun that's she wrapped up in is gleeful.

She lets him pull the strings to her puppet.

What can she do? Playing along is just too fun to resist.

So she acts as if she's wrapped around his little finger, obeying his every word.

She lets him think that he's the centre of her universe that which she revolves round. She puffs up the feathers of his ego.

But at the same time, she can feel him chipping away at her self-worth.

Finally, when he drives her to the very edge of the cliff and a long drop, she has just enough pride left to ensure that she places in the last piece of her elaborate puzzle.

She cheats on him and lets him know.

What goes up, must come down.

The higher you climb, the harder you fall.

With that, his illusion of power crumbles away.

Because, he's supposed to be the best. He has always been the best. How can someone be better than him?

So together, hand in hand, they begin the descent into mutual madness.

Isn't it so romantic? It's what normal people do.

She knows that's a lie.