There it was. Hope.
Hope that she would still meet him again, maybe soon, maybe in a moment.
But I let her question linger in the air, let her panic and hope build, let her heart thump so loudly. I couldn’t wait to crush it all.
I closed the distance between us completely, so close I could hear her racing heart, feel the tremor beneath her veins.
“Where’s Callan, you say?” I leaned in, my face inches away from hers.
My world, her eyes were so big, so pretty. I would sacrifice anything to see it widen, streaked with horror as I squeezed her little neck, watching those pupils shrink as light escaped them.
“Let’s see…” I trailed off.
Her breath hitched.
“He’s here.” I tapped my temple with one finger, a slow crooked smile twisting onto my lips. “Asleep? I’ve got no idea.”
She froze.
“W-what does that mean?” she asked, voice cracking.
“Let’s say, I borrowed his body for a little while.” I pinched my fingers together for emphasis. “I could tell you how he’s doing but I haven’t heard his voice in days. Maybe he’s dead too.”
I had really not heard Callan’s voice since I slipped out. He had been sleeping…deeply. He chose to overwork himself because he would rather die than give me control. So I let him. I pretended like I couldn’t break through him, let him work himself like a fucking machine. I knew humans were weak like that. There was only much their body could take until they stopped fighting.
“Callan isn’t here,” I concluded, straightening. “But Zaghan is. And trust me, I am so much better than your Callan.”
Her eyes flashed as realisation seemed to settle in them. And I could almost see the memories connecting in her head. Callan’s disappearing acts, his inability to explain the said disappearances, the mood swings she had been experiencing with me since she arrived, the warmness that switched to coldness like a season. It was all coming together in her head.
Slowly, her face drained of colours as the truth dawned on her, too big, too terrifying, and too wrong. She staggered backwards as if the air itself shoved her.
“No,” she whispered to herself, shaking her head. “That’s not, that isn’t right?”
She turned, stumbling for the door, towards escape, towards anywhere, anywhere else but here.
Little did she know that here was where she belonged now. The moment she walked through that gate, that very door, her fate was sealed.
Of course, I liked to have fun with my prey, make them believe there was another chance, an escape. Then I would pounce. So I let her go, take two steps. Then softly, I spoke, my voice like a blade sliding out of its sheath. “Elizabeth.”
She stopped, every muscle in her body locking.
Now, that was a good girl.
“The rule was simple,” I said, placing my wine glass gently on the table. “You walk into my lair, into my orbit, you become mine.”
She refused to turn around. Refused to breathe. She stood there frozen, her fright throbbing like heat.
I moved behind her, close enough to feel my terror brush behind her neck.
“Callan may let you run, darling,” I whispered, my lips brushing her earlobe. “But I won’t.”
She flinched at the promise in my words.
“With me, there’s no running, and even if you ran, you won’t get far enough. I’ll catch you. With me, all you’ll get is a cruel ending.”
The silence after that was ice cold, suffocating. Then very slowly, she turned her head, lips parted, eyes wide with the kind of fear that made my pulse hum louder.
She understood…perfectly.
