After a tense pause, she emerged from the darkness, strutting forward with the same theatrical grace that had haunted my memories. Her striped jumpsuit clung to her frame, exaggerated makeup giving her an almost doll-like appearance, her lips painted in an overdrawn, crimson smirk. She swung a thick, chipped cane in one hand, tapping it against her palm with a little bounce in her step, her eyes wide with feigned innocence.
“Oh, Ash,” she drawled, her tone lilting like a melody laced with arsenic. “Miss me, darling?”
I stiffened, a deep scowl etching onto my face. “Cut the crap. I want her back.”
Lilith tilted her head, blinking slowly, her expression morphing into one of genuine confusion. “Her?” She squinted, raising a hand to her chin as if she were truly considering my words. “Now, I’m afraid you’ll have to help me here, Ash. I have so many little toys. Who are we talking about?”
“Dove,” I ground out, my voice thick with frustration. “The girl. The one I let go. You’ve been tormenting her since she left, haven’t you?”
Lilith’s brows furrowed slightly, her lips twisting as if she were tasting a sour candy. “Dove?” Her laughter burst out in a sudden, high-pitched cackle, as if the very idea was absurd. “Oh, Ash, you really think I’d waste my time on some… some girl you picked up? Darling, I don’t even know where she is.”
I sneered, tightening his fists. “Don’t play games with me. The balloons… they keep appearing. I know it’s you, Lilith. You’re trying to scare her.”
She placed a hand on her heart, feigning a hurt expression. “Now, why would I go out of my way for a girl I’ve never even met?” She leaned in closer, studying my face with a curious smile. “You poor thing. Are you really so torn up over this… Dove?” She said the name like it was something foreign, a trinket she had never bothered to notice before.
My jaw clenched, doubt creeping in against his will. Could she be telling the truth? But I shoved it aside. This was Lilith; manipulation was her art, and she knew how to twist words until even I couldn’t tell what was real. I let my voice drop, low and dangerous.
“If I find out you’re lying…”
Lilith merely laughed, waving a hand dismissively. “Oh, darling, you’ve always had such a flair for drama. But I think this is all in your head.” She leaned in close, her breath warmand sickly sweet as she whispered, “Maybe your pretty little Dove isn’t so safe after all… but it isn’t because of me.”
I stared her down, the shadows casting my face into sharp, harsh lines. Inside, a fear I wouldn’t acknowledge clawed at me, a terrifying thought I couldn’t shake. If it wasn’t Lilith, then who else could it be?
My mind was a war zone.My thoughts swirled like a storm, chaotic and violent. I refused to believe Lilith had been tormenting Dove, but deep down, the nagging thought gnawed at me, twisting into something darker. I had to believe she was telling the truth—I had to. But there was no way in hell I was going to put it past her. Lilith thrived on this kind of control, this sick pleasure in manipulation. If she had been involved, I would never forgive her.
The phone’s sudden ring sliced through the tension, startling me. I growled under my breath, annoyed at the interruption. I’d rather wallow in misery than deal with anyone right now. But when I glanced at the screen, my pulse quickened. It wasn’t Dove. It was the asylum.
My heart dropped into my stomach. The last place I wanted to think about was that damn place, but as much as I tried to shake it off, the connection between the asylum and Lilith gnawed at me. I’d never fully understood her obsession with it. Even now, standing in front of her, she was like a child staring at a forbidden treasure, her wide eyes full of something he couldn’t name.
“What’s this about?” I muttered, my voice barely above a growl. My fingers gripped my phone like it might slip throughmy hands, like I might lose whatever hold I had left over the truth.
Lilith, standing a few paces away, froze. Her expression changed instantly, the gleam in her eyes becoming something darker, hungrier. She leaned in, taking slow steps toward me. The surrounding air seemed to grow colder, the world around us tightening, like we were being sucked into something ancient, something dangerous.
“Isn’t it fascinating?” Her voice was lilting, almost reverent. She spoke of the asylum as though it were something sacred, like it was alive, breathing. “The Asylum,” she repeated, her lips curving into a smile that sent a shiver down his spine. “I’ve always wanted to see it… to know what happens in places like that.”
I swallowed back a lump, trying to shake the feeling that this was all wrong. The call from the asylum had sounded urgent, frantic, but the way Lilith spoke about it made it seem like a twisted, tantalizing mystery. I couldn’t understand what about that forsaken place could hold her attention, yet something about it did. It made me uneasy, my gut twisting in warning.
I didn’t care about Lilith’s curiosity—I had bigger issues. With a sharp exhale, I shoved the phone to my ear.
“They said it’s an emergency. I have to go,” I muttered, barely listening to what was being said on the other end of the line. My mind was already slipping away from the present, far from the deranged circus, far from Lilith’s dark presence.
Lilith’s gaze never left me, though. The silence between us stretched, filled with the weight of her thoughts. She had an insatiable thirst for the unknown, and I had the creeping feeling that the asylum was just one more piece of her twisted puzzle.
Before I even realized it, I was storming out of the tent, mysteps heavy and purposeful, but Lilith’s voice followed me like a shadow. “If you find what you’re looking for,” she called after me, her voice teasing and maddening, “be sure to bring me back a souvenir.”
I didn’t even look back.
The moment I stepped onto my motorcycle, the cool air wrapping around me like a heavy shroud, I could feel the distance between myself and everything—between myself and Dove, between myself and this sick, endless game Lilith had dragged me into. The world outside felt suffocating, the edges of my vision narrowing, pressing against the weight of my thoughts.
The roads were deserted as I tore through the woods, the only sound the growl of my motorcycle engine and the whipping wind in my face. The trees leaned in close, their barren branches reaching out like skeletal fingers, their twisted forms casting long, jagged shadows on the path ahead. The woods seemed endless, dark and ominous, as if it was a place where nothing good could grow, where all hope had long since withered and died.
Every time the road bent or a shadow loomed from the corners of my eyes, my heart pounded harder. My mind was still a hurricane, thoughts crashing against each other, none of them making any sense. Was Dove okay? Had Lilith done something to her? What was so urgent at the asylum that I couldn’t ignore it?
Why now?
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the throttle, speeding past the twisted trees. The fog rolled in, thick and suffocating, creeping along the ground, hiding the path in front of me. The world around me felt like it was slipping into some nightmare, a place where light couldn’t reach.
The deep, suffocating silence of the woods seemed to pressagainst me. The place was dead, a silent wasteland. Only the howl of the wind through the trees and the occasional screech of a distant owl broke the eerie quiet, making the whole scene feel like the beginning of a ghost story.
