“If you had been anyone else… You wouldn’t have woken up in your bed. You would have woken up in a room where your memory was a white sheet, and I was the only truth you knew.
“What would you have done then, hm? What if the only voice you heard in the dark was the one that saved you from the monster? If the moment I touched you, I broke your willingness to run.
“I could have given you peace, and you would have thanked me for finally ending the pain.
“You think I don’t know what’s buried in you? That deep, bone-tight ache for someone to see all of you and still keep you.
“Brick by shattered brick, I would dismantle the life you know, until the only name you answered to was the one I gave you.
“Would you like to know what it was? What I would’ve renamed you, had I kept you away? Would you like to know how many times I’ve already said it out loud?
“Do you think he’ll tell you how sacred your pulse felt? How the feeling of it, strong beneath my palm, promised a future I had already claimed?
“If I wanted to break you, little Dove, I wouldn’t have needed drugs—just the cold truth. But I didn’t, because I need you to feel it first. I need you to know this world you think you’ve rebuilt for yourself is built on borrowed time.
“This safety that you’ve conjured up is nothing more than a lie he gave you to keep you docile. He won’t always be here, you know?
“He already failed you once. He’ll fail again, and when he does... I’ll be waiting. Because you were always meant to be mine.”
I tap my fingers against my jaw, watching her on the screen—still sleeping and soft.Still mine.
You should thank me for my restraint, Lumi. Monsters who can’t control themselves? They finish fast... and they forget even faster.
But me? Iremembereverything.
Every twitch.
Every heartbeat.
And I’m gonna make sure you remember too.
Lumi
I’m not quite sure where I am; everything feels wrong. All I can register is a dark, looming shape—like someone is standing over me, or the shadows themselves have weight.
There’s a muffled voice nearby, like it’s wrapped in thick wool. It’s close, and it scares me.
My body feels like it's underwater. My mind wrapped in cold, wet gauze. Every limb is heavy, unresponsive. I try to speak, to call out, but my throat is dry and tight—locked shut as if stitched from the inside.
I remember snow. Running. Screaming. Antlers silhouetted in the dark—wind slicing past my face, fear burning in my chest.
Then warmth. Strong arms wrapping around me. Carrying me like I’m something breakable. But I don’t feel safe. I feel... cornered.
I can hear whispers, but I can’t make out the words. I try to open my eyes again, but they're too heavy. Everything tilts sideways.
I smell something familiar through the haze, slightly sweet and soothing. Chamomile.
A blanket brushes my shoulder, it feels like the one I sleep with every night—Anna’s. There’s the faint hum of my refrigerator... and the familiar squeak of the broken icemaker.
I’m in my apartment.
But how did I get here?
I try with all my might to open my eyes, but the darkness pulls me under, and this time I surrender completely.
Andrik
I should be tearing the city apart, one bone at a time, until the world bleeds an answer.
