Maybe that should have been a red flag, but admittedly, I’m pretty sure I have a horror kink, and Ghostface is my favorite. Between dark romance books, scary movies, and an insatiable curiosity—I’ve gone down the internet rabbit hole and discovered a whole underworld where danger and desire collide.
It doesn’t make much sense, considering I have the survival instincts of a gazelle. Regardless, I’ve felt myself being pulled deeper into this predator-and-prey dynamic after Eros415 found me on a university Discord server where I didn’t belong. I’d lefta comment on a thread about shark conservation, and his name popped up in my DMs a minute later.
Why is an Apparel Design major lurking in the Bio server? You have a thing for apex predators, Gabriela?
His message made me smile, and the fact that he was into sharks and scary movies sent a tiny thrill through me. There weren’t too many people who wanted to listen to me ramble on about my special interests. But he seemed to like the same things.
Since that night, we’ve messaged every day, and over time, I’ve become a little too comfortable with him. Somehow, he’s dismantled my armor like a skilled surgeon, excising my secrets one by one.
I’ve told him things I haven’t told anyone else. My fears, my desires, and some of my most depraved fantasies.
In this slow-burning chess match, he’s established himself as the dominant one, and I’ve willfully surrendered to his power.
There’s something addictive about the way he talks to me. He’s sarcastic, protective, and has a dark sense of humor. But as time has gone on, I’ve realized he knows far more about me than I know about him.
They aren’t obvious details, but he seems to know me better than texts alone should allow. He anticipates my feelings, answers my unspoken questions, and understands the parts of me I keep hidden. He notices every hesitation, and he can sense when I’m overwhelmed, even when I don’t say anything about it. In a way, it feels like he’s reading my body language, and it’s left me with a lingering question I haven’t been able to shake.
Maybe he isn’t just messaging me.
He could be watching me too.
As if he can read my thoughts, my phone chimes with the familiar sound of a Discord notification.
“Miss Bianchi.”
I startle at the sound of Julian’s voice, and when I turn around, I see he’s holding the car door open for me.
“Oh. Yes, thank you,” I mutter awkwardly, sliding onto the backseat while Abella gets in on the other side.
I unlock my phone and glance at the new message.
Eros415: Tell me about your day, little shark.
I’m not sure what it is that makes me glance out the window, but when I do, the lone figure has disappeared into the night.
A weird feeling settles over me as I stare at my keyboard, typing out and erasing three different responses. But in the end, I send none of them, because Abella leans over, trying to get a peek at my screen.
“Who are you talking to?”
“Nobody.” I close the Discord app, feigning indifference as I scroll through my text messages.
There’s nothing new, but I can’t help noticing the last time I texted Abella was a few days ago. I never asked her to come to my apartment today, so how did she know?
When I meet her gaze, she gives me a conspiratorial smile, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Is it…you know?”
“You know who?” Angelo assesses us in the rearview mirror.
“Nobody.” Abella rolls her eyes at her husband’s protectiveness before she rushes to offer me her reassurances. “Don’t worry. He won’t say anything.”
Angelo exchanges a glance with Julian. Every man in theCosa Nostratakes it upon themselves to look out for us, and if he were any other man, I might be worried that he’d tell Michael. But Abella trusts him implicitly, so I believe her when she says he won’t rat me out—even if it technically goes against his code.
Still, it’s not something I should be advertising, and we all know it.
“Hey, can I see your phone for a second?” I ask Abella.
“Sure.” She gives me a curious look.
After she hands it over, I pull up her text messages and frown when I see the one she mentioned. It’s in our text thread, and it was sent this afternoon…before I even got home from school.
