The Bound deepens and Darkens

After the attack, I couldn’t bring myself to go back to my apartment alone. So, here I was, walking through the dimly lit streets, led by the man who had saved my life. Every nerve in my body felt raw and exposed, every sound sharper, every shadow darker. I glanced at him, the man who was, in some twisted fate, bound to me. And for the first time, I felt more trapped than protected.

We reached an abandoned building on the outskirts of town—a sanctuary he called it, one of the few places “they” couldn’t breach. He opened the door, and I followed him into a shadowed, quiet space filled with the faint smell of incense and old wood.

“Stay close,” he murmured, casting a wary look around the room, though I saw no one but us. “There are rules you need to understand.”

Rules. The word settled heavily in the room, filling the silence between us with its weight. I’d grown up following rules, but none of them had prepared me for this.

He leaned against the wall, his face unreadable but his gaze intensely locked onto mine. “You’ve been marked, Daniel,” he said, his voice steady but edged with something dark. “And whether you like it or not, I’m the one who marked you.”

The words lingered in the air, heavy and binding. “Marked?” I repeated, barely able to keep the incredulity from my voice. “What does that even mean?”

“It means,” he said slowly, “that you’re mine to protect, mine to guard… but also mine to keep and mine to lo….” A flicker of something passed across his face, an emotion I couldn’t quite place. “There’s no way out now.”

I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of his words press against me, threatening to crush me under their inevitability. “No way out,” I echoed, my voice barely a whisper. “So… I’m just trapped in this? Is this a fucking joke?!”

“It’s not a cage and neither is it a joke, Daniel,” he replied, though I could see the irony wasn’t lost on him. “But it’s… complicated. Once I’ve claimed you, any other supernatural presence will sense it. They’ll know you’re bound to me, and many of them won’t take that lightly.”

“Bound to you?” The words felt foreign, and yet, deep down, there was a tug of recognition, like this wasn’t the first time I’d heard them. I frowned, watching him carefully. “How long have you… how long have you been watching me?”

He hesitated, his gaze dropping to the floor for the first time since we’d met. “Since before you were born,” he finally admitted. “You’re more than a mortal to me. You’re… important in ways you can’t yet understand. And because of that, anyone who gets close to you becomes a target.”

A chill settled over me, colder than the night air. “What does that mean?” I demanded, voice trembling as I pressed him. “Did you… did you have anything to do with the things that have happened to me? The losses I’ve faced?”

He met my gaze, and for a moment, I thought I saw guilt flash in his eyes. “Not intentionally,” he said softly. “But yes, I may have played a role, indirectly. My presence draws danger, Daniel. People close to you, those you care about, they’ve been at risk since the day you were born.”

The ground felt like it was slipping out from under me. Every loss, every heartache, every person I’d ever cared for who had vanished or hurt me, my parents that died—had it all been connected to him? To this… curse he claimed to have?

“You don’t get to decide that,” I said, my voice shaking with anger and disbelief. “You don’t get to just… claim someone, to steal away my life like this.” I know I didn’t have a life, but still

He didn’t respond, only watched me with that same haunted but surprisingly hot look, and something in his expression softened. “I don’t expect you to understand,” he said. “But you need to know this… our bond is not something I chose either. It’s a curse I’ve carried for lifetimes, one that’s bound me to you since the day you took your first breath.”

The room felt colder suddenly, like the walls themselves were closing in. My anger warred with something else—something deeper, something that felt like pity but was tinged with a reluctant, but terrible curiosity. “Why me?” I whispered.

He moved closer, his gaze flickering with a pain so raw it was nearly tangible. “I don’t know,” he said quietly, his voice barely more than a breath. “All I know is that from the moment you were born, I’ve been drawn to you, compelled to protect you at any cost.”

I shook my head, unwilling to accept this strange fate. “You don’t know what this feels like,” I spat, frustration thick in my voice. “To find out that my life has been… orchestrated, that my choices were never my own.”

“No,” he replied, his voice equally heavy, “but I know what it feels like to live in darkness, to be forced to protect someone who will never see me for what I am.”

I wanted to hate him in that moment, to let my anger drown out the confusion and fear that had plagued me since we’d met. But then, he reached out, almost as if he was going to touch me, then stopped, letting his hand fall back. In his eyes, I saw a glimmer of loneliness, of resignation that mirrored my own. And I felt something shift between us, something subtle yet undeniable.

But before either of us could say more, a sudden chill flooded the room, darker and heavier than before. My breath caught in my throat as a shadow peeled itself from the corner of the room, forming into a figure, cloaked in darkness, its eyes gleaming with a malevolent hunger. It was no ordinary intruder—this creature radiated power, an ancient, wicked energy that felt like it could consume me whole.

“Ah, so it’s true,” the figure hissed, a low, slithering voice that seemed to echo in the walls. “The chosen one has finally come of age.”

I backed away instinctively, every nerve in my body screaming danger. The stranger beside me took a protective step forward, his face darkening with fury.

“Stay away from him,” he growled, his voice colder than ice.

But the creature only laughed, a dark, twisted sound that sent shivers down my spine. “Oh, but he is a prize,” it said, eyes flicking to me. “A precious, rare prize in our little game. Did you really think you could keep him all to yourself, Rigel?”

That as my protectors name.

I felt my body go cold, my heart pounding as I watched the two of them, frozen between terror and disbelief. The creature’s gaze landed on me, and I could feel its pull, a hunger that felt like it was trying to draw me closer.

“Daniel,” Rigel said sharply, his voice breaking through the spell. “You need to leave. Now.”

I tried to move, but my legs felt like they were anchored to the ground, the weight of this dark presence pressing down on me, holding me in place. The creature’s lips curled into a sinister smile, its eyes glinting with satisfaction.

“Oh, he’s not going anywhere,” it sneered. “You see, he doesn’t belong to you. Not anymore.”

With a sudden, impossible speed, the creature lunged forward, and before I knew it, I was yanked into its grip, my vision blurring as it dragged me toward the shadows. Rigel’s face flashed in my vision, a look of pure, desperate fear—an emotion I never thought I’d see from him.

“Daniel!” he shouted, his voice reverberating through the darkness as he fought to reach me. “I’ll find you—don’t let go!”

But the creature’s grip tightened, pulling me further into the suffocating darkness. Just as my vision began to fade, I heard a voice—a whisper in my mind, soft but insistent, belonging to the man who had been bound to me all my life.

“I will come for you, Daniel. No matter what it takes.”

And then, the world went black.