LOGIN“You are an interesting woman,” he says finally, as though he has been collecting sentiments about me like curiosities. “I am not for your amusement,” I say. “Amusement is a generous way of putting it.” He turns his face to me and finally, which is nothing like mercy, he kisses me. It is a small t
“You will come with me tonight,” he says suddenly, and when I look at him the certainty in his eyes is a rope. “Where are we going?” I ask. I do not like the sound of my own voice in the dark halls. “To the club,” he says, as if the clubs he owns are nothing more than rooms he has arranged for his
The dinner goes on without ceremony. I wear a dress that fits like a promise and is less comfortable than anything else I own. The woman who dresses me fusses at the strap and at the hem with an intimacy that is practiced, like a ritual done daily for decades. The room where dinner is served is a pl
“You should not have broken a tray,” he says in that voice that is silk wrapped around steel. It makes everyone quiet because it is a voice that is treated like currency in this house. The words are simple but the way he says them says a thousand more complicated things. He is not angry the way I am
I come back from the memory to find sunlight in my eyes and orange juice dried on the carpet like the outline of a wound. My hands are trembling now for reasons I cannot name. The house clock in the hall ticks the way a heart does when it is being measured. There are noises behind the walls, small h
Oh God, I hate him. He is the center of everything I cannot control in this place. He is the reason doors close and keys rattle and the nights feel like traps. He is the reason my throat tastes like metal at dusk. He is also the reason, absurdly and against my every better judgment, that sometimes
~~AURELIA~~ So many things weren’t making sense to me. Like how i ended up in this place, but when had anything ever made sense? Definitely not since i found myself in Dervane. The thought brought a tear to my eyes. I was a real fool but I’d always had it in me to want to run. To where though?
This is it. He’s going to kill me… drain all the blood from my system. “Please—- please stop—- i’ll never try to escape again “ i beg in a silent whimper as everything in my vision spins. He seems to stop for a moment. I feel his fangs disconnect from my skin as he breathes into my neck almost out
~~AURELIA~~ I’m going to die. The thought rings in my head as i cascade downwards. The trees thorns coming into contact with my face, i brace myself for the sound of my bones crashing into a million pieces. But suddenly— I’m hanging— mid air with my face inches away from the sharp looking three
I press the blade against my chest in a silent prayer. Something slams by the side of my window and a yelp tears out of me. But I remember—they locked me in, so I’m safe, right? I try to stay calm and continue praying, but the same noise slams again. “Who’s there?” I point the blade at the window,







