The memory of him gives me pause. I trip, my foot catching on the lip of one of the steps. My hands fly out and I catch myself, but not before I hit my knee—hard.
“Fuck!” I shout out before I’m able to stop myself. I listen for his footsteps behind me, but there’s nothing—only horrifying silence.
Pain radiates through my leg, but I don’t dare stop. I haul myself up and continue up the stairs. I don’t dare turn to look behind me, terrified of what I’ll see if I turn. Those glowing eyes are filled with sinister intent. I have no doubt that if he catches me, it will be my undoing. He will tear me apart, piece by piece, until I’m completely exposed. Just the thought forces my body into overdrive, scrambling up the groaning wooden stairs as if he’s hot on my heels. By the time I reach the landing, I’m breathless. My sympathetic nervous system has completely taken over my body, putting me into flight mode. My whole being is pumping with the urge to run, run, run.
“You can’t outrun me, Princess.”
His cold voice holds a hint of amused pleasure. Standing atthe opposite end of the hallway, having beat me to the top of the stairs, is the glowing red eyes of the Devil. My Devil.
“You always did favor that sneaky back staircase,” he tells me as he approaches cautiously. The ancient wooden boards creak beneath his massive black boots. “What did you call it?” He pauses as if trying to remember. “Our secret stairway to snacks.”
He chuckles, but my blood turns to ice in my veins.
“Who the fuck are you?” I whisper in horror as my mind races to catch up with the truth I won’t let myself believe.
“You know.” He takes another step toward me. The red glow of the mask is the only light in the dark windowless hall. “You’ve always known, Ali.”
I shake my head. “You’re Gabriel Parsons. You own a cybersecurity company and started teaching at the school where I work. We met and had a brief fling, but then I found out you’d been stalking me for a few months—”
His cruel laughter bounces off the enclosed space around us, surrounding me with the Devil’s humorless chuckle. He steps even closer, and I step back. My foot hits the riser of the stair and I flail, attempting to stop myself from falling. I pivot. My back hits the wall behind me as his hand closes around my throat, pinning me to the cracked plaster and peeling paint.
“Months?” he repeats, his voice dripping with venom. “Try years, Ali. Every move, every kiss, every tear, every laugh—I’ve been there, watching from the shadows for every single fucking thing. You see, I thought you’d be happier without me, without my baggage weighing you down. You were so determined to get out and to make something of yourself. I needed to let you go…but I couldn’t.” His grip on my throat tightens. My chest squeezes as I struggle to breath. “I even came to your wedding, did you know that? I watched as you pledged your life to that fucking asshole, praying the entire time that you’d look up and see me, notice me, BE WITH ME.”
His voice grows louder and louder as he speaks, but I can barely hear it over the ringing in my own ears. Black spots dot my vision but I try to hold on, try to focus.
I am not weak. I’m in control.
“He is such an evil, bad man, Ali.” He sounds wild, manic, unhinged. My panic rises. “Why would you marry him? Because on paper he was safe? Because he offered a white picket fence and a boring life?” He leans in so close that I can feel the warm plastic of his glowing mask against my skin. “I’ve seen the jagged edges of your soul—I know that you’ve been punishing yourself. You let yourself believe you didn’t deserve better than that asshole, but you did, you do. You deserve so much more than he ever gave you, Princess. You deserve the entire fucking world.”
A single tear slides down my cheek, the saltwater stinging my heated skin.
“Who are you?” I manage to choke out as my chest constricts.
His free hand reaches for mine. He pulls my left palm up to face him, so that it’s eye level with the Devilish glow of his mask.
“Do you remember the night I gave you this cut?” he asks as his thumb lightly traces the silvery scar along my skin. “You’d had the worst day. You were so little, so scared, so lost. Even then, as young as we were, I knew I was meant to protect you.”
My mind trips over memories and moments, trying to get back to the night he’s describing. I think it was one of the first weeks I’d been placed here. I missed my mom, but I didn’t miss the anxiety inducing instability of my home. She’d lost custody after being caught with enough dope to catch possession charges. They had a hard time locating extended family to take me in. I’d been placed here in the meantime. I didn’t understand the rules, the structure of this place and these people. I kept getting in trouble. Until a small boy with black hair and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen took pity on me. He’d found me crying in my closet. It’s where I used to hide when dad and mom gotinto it. It felt safe and quiet, so I hid there after being yelled at for taking a snack without asking. I didn’t know. I was just hungry. The boy found me and made me a promise—a promise I haven’t thought about until now.
“You?” I ask incredulously. “You promised to protect me?”
He lets out a low sigh that almost sounds like relief and the grip on my throat loosens. I suck in a deep breath as my lungs expand fully. “Yes, beautiful, I promised you I’d protect you. I let you down once when I watched you fall into Brody’s path. And I’ve been trying to figure out how to make it right ever since.”
“You said that you’d be my protector, that I was—”
“That you were mine and I was yours. And that I’d always protect you and take care of you,” he finishes for me as he leans down so that our foreheads touch. The gesture would be intimate, sweet even, if he weren’t admitting to stalking me for years while wearing a Devil mask. “And I promised in blood.”
I sag against the wall as I catch my breath, attempting to calm my racing heart. He holds up his palm showing the scar that matches my own. His other hand digs into his pocket to retrieve something. My fear spikes again when he pulls out a sharp knife. The blade glints red in the light reflecting from his mask.
“I promise you, Princess.” He brings the blade to his palm, slicing along the pattern laid by the initial cut from so many years ago. Blood blooms across his skin and he hisses in pain. “I will protect you and keep you safe, always, every single fucking day. From here on out, I’m yours.”
He grabs my hand again, drawing it up toward him. Instinctively, I present him with my palm. I don’t know why I do it, why I let him bring the blade down to my skin. I could fight, could flee, could scream. But there’s still some part of me that’s the same scared little girl.
“And you’re mine.” He slices quick and fast across my skin.The sharp pain is fast but it swiftly grows into a dull throb.
He clasps our palms together. A blood oath. A pact, a promise, a plea.
“It’s not enough.” I hear myself say before I register the words leaving my mouth.
