Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 24205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
As Lucian's laughter mingled with the music, he removed his mask and placed it gently in my lap.
I stared down at his sinister facade, the contours and hollows of the mask a physical representation of the night, of Lucian's transformation, of the path my life had taken.
When I dared to look up, I caught his gaze on me, a look that held what remained of the boy I had loved, now inseparable from the man who had claimed me. In that brief exchange, I understood—he would never let me go.
As we got farther away from the college, I could feel the remnants of the person I thought I was beginning to fracture.
There was a part of me, despite the chaos he had wrought, that still felt an inexplicable bond to him.
It was a twisted affection that refused to be smothered by the horror of his actions.
He was right; I did care for him, and within the labyrinth of my aching heart, there lurked a love that was as sick and insane as the situation we found ourselves in. What did that make me? How could I still feel for him after all this? The question gnawed at me.
It suggested a kinship with the darkness that Lucian embodied, a disturbing echo of his own derangement within me. I wondered if beneath the horror and the fear, there was a part of me that belonged in the clandestine world he was dragging me into.
With the mask in my hands, and the strains of ‘Driving Home for Christmas wrapping around us, I turned my gaze to the road ahead and closed my eyes.
The day I made him bleed, I unknowingly bound myself to the soul of a boy destined to become my dark captor. Now, my heart and my future were held in his bloodied hands.