Page 64 of Dark Therapy
I couldfeelthe unease creeping up her spine, the faintitchat the edge of her awareness. Her confusion was palpable,delicious. That subtle tightening of her shoulders, the way her head tilted just slightly as if listening for something she couldn’t hear. She was starting to question. Starting to doubt.
That was my favorite part. Watching the realization bloom, slow and inevitable, like blood spreading through water. The way her mind turned over itself, grasping for an explanation, but never quite landing on me. Not until it wastoolate.
She took a wrong turn.
I stayed still, leaning into the moment, savoring it. Would she notice? Would she turn back? No. She didn’t. She walked deeper into the alley, her steps faltering just slightly as the streetlights faded behind her. The corners of my mouth tugged upward, a grin that felt almost involuntary. She was making this too easy.
The shadows thickened around her, the dim glow of the city barely reaching this far. I moved now, slow and deliberate, each step silent but intentional. The faint sound of her breathing filled the space, quickening with each step she took. She was trying to shake it off, trying to rationalize it away. But she couldn’t.
Her footsteps echoed against the brick walls, loud and frantic, and I matched them, falling into rhythm with herfear. My pulse wasn’t racing; no, my heart was steady, controlled. This wasn’t adrenaline. This wasart.
Amelia stopped abruptly, her body stiffening as the weight of the air shifted. I stopped too, close enough now that I could feel the heat radiating off her skin, the static crackle of her rising panic. She didn’t dare turn around—she didn’t need to. Sheknew.
I let my breath fill the silence, deep and slow, a predator’s rhythm syncing perfectly with her dread. Her pulse was a drumbeat, erratic and loud, and I imagined I could hear it over the muffled hum of the city beyond the alley.
And then, she turned.
The moment her eyes locked on mine, Isawit—the spark, the fracture, the unraveling. Recognition slammed into her like a freight train, followed by fear so raw it practicallyscreamedfrom her skin. Her face drained of color, her lips parted as if she might say something—beg, plead, pray—but nothing came. Not yet. She was caught in the headlights, her body frozen, her mind spinning, trying to deny the nightmare standing inches from her.
It was beautiful.
I watched her panic build, her breaths turning shallow as she pieced it together. Step by agonizing step. The way her pupils dilated. The way her pulse hammered in her throat. She thought she was safe. She thought I was just a ghost.
“Surprise,” I muttered, taking a step closer.
Her back hit the wall with a soft thud, and I grinned. The flicker offearin her eyes widened, swallowing her whole, and it sent athrillracing through me. This was better than blood. Better than fuckingair.
“You feel it, don’t you, Millie?” My voice was a razor’s edge, soft and slicing. I leaned in, letting my words crawl into herhead, letting them stick. “Thattwistin your gut. Thatshivercrawling up your spine. You thought I was gone. You thought I’d let you go.”
Her breath hitched, and Isawit—the moment she realized she wasn’t getting out of this. Not tonight.Notever.
“I’ve been watching you,” I murmured, my words dripping like venom, slow and deliberate. “Every move. All this time, you’ve been living like you’re free. But here’s the thing, Millie: you’ve always belonged to me. And you know it.”
Her legs trembled, her chest rising and falling too fast. I leaned in until her scent flooded my senses—fear, confusion, and just the faintest trace of somethingdeeper. Somethingdarker. She tried to inch sideways, her body brushing against the brick as if the wall would magically open and swallow her whole.
“Nowhere to run, sweetheart,” I said, my voice dropping to a growl. I slammed my hand against the wall beside her head, and she flinched, her breath hitching like a broken note. “The world’s too small for you to hide. And me?” I leaned in, so close I could feel her exhale. “I don’t fucking lose what’smine.”
Her eyes darted around,desperate, calculating. But there was nowhere to go. Nowhere butintome. I felt her breaking, piece by piece, her fight crumbling under the weight of it all. And still, beneath the panic, there it was—something she couldn’t kill, couldn’t ignore. A spark of something she didn’t want to name.
“You’ve missed me,” I whispered, my words brushing against her ear like a knife gliding over silk.
She shivered, her eyes burning with denial, but I could see the truth, raw and screaming beneath her skin. Shehatedme. Shewantedme. And she knew there was no escape.
I leaned in, pressing my chest to hers, feeling the frantic rhythm of her pulse hammering just beneath her skin. Her fear wasn’t just palpable—it was intoxicating. I couldtasteit, sharp and electric, coursing through her every breath. It coiled through me like a shot of adrenaline, stoking the fire in my veins.
I dragged my breath along her ear, my voice a low, venomous whisper. “Soon, Millie… you’ll fucking remember. You’ll remember what it felt like to bemine. To have me buried so deep inside your soul that there’s no digging me out. You’llunderstand why you’ll never escape. Why you don’t even want to.”
The words slithered through the cracks in her mind, wrapping tight around her like barbed wire. I could see it in her eyes—that flicker of denial, the last scraps of fight crumbling into something darker. Something inevitable. She didn’t just hear the truth; shefeltit, bone-deep and irreversible.
I brushed my lips against her skin, not kissing her, just grazing her with a deliberate cruelty that made her shudder. She couldn’t run. Not from this. Not fromme. I’d carved myself into her a long time ago, and no amount of distance or time would ever change that.
“You think you’re free?” I asked, my voice thick with a dark amusement. “You think you’re standing here, breathing, living your little life, like you can justleaveme behind?” I laughed then, low and guttural, the sound vibrating between us. “Nah, Millie. That’s not how this works. You don’t get to walk away from me.Notever.”
Shetrembled, and I relished it, the way her body betrayed her, the way her lips quivered like she was choking on everyscream she wanted to let loose. Her silence was louder than any cry. It told meeverything. She wasn’t just scared—she was breaking. Andfuck, it was beautiful.
“Youbetrayedme,” I hissed, my grin twisting into something cruel, jagged. “You locked me up,threwme into a cage and thought that’d be the end of it. That you could wipe your hands clean, pretend I was a bad dream. But guess what, doctor? I’ve got teeth. And I’ve got all the time in the fucking world.”
Her eyes widened, a sheen of terror glistening in them. I stepped even closer, letting the heat of my breath linger on her neck as my fingers brushed her arm. Her pulse leapt under my touch, and I let out a dark chuckle. “Oh, youfeelthat, don’t you? You’re trembling like you hate it, but your body knows better. You belong to me, and it fuckingknowsit.”