LOGIN~ Avelyn ~Dominic didnāt step inside.Somehow, that made everything worse.He remained where he was, just beyond the threshold, as though crossing into my space wasnāt necessary to take control of it. The air between us felt tight, stretched thin by everything unsaid, everything already understood.I didnāt invite him in.He didnāt ask again.Instead, he slipped one hand into his coat and pulled out a small card, holding it between his fingers for a moment before extending it toward me. I hesitated, my eyes flickering from the object to his face, searching for somethingāanythingāthat might give me room to breathe in this situation.There was none.Slowly, I reached out and took it.It was an address.A time.Three days from now.My fingers tightened slightly around the card as the meaning settled in.Dominic watched me take it in, his expression unchanged, as if this was nothing more than a simple exchange.āThree days,ā he said, his voice calm, measured in a way that made it harder
~ Avelyn ~The man standing in front of me didnāt look surprised to see me. If anything, there was a quiet certainty in his expression, as though this moment had already played out in his mind long before I opened the door. He stood there with an ease that didnāt belong to ordinary men, dressed too neatly, too composed for someone tied to the kind of world I had tried so desperately to escape.And yet, I knew exactly who he was.I hadnāt spent enough time around him to claim familiarity, but it didnāt take familiarity to recognize danger. It lived in the way he held himself, in the stillness that wasnāt empty but controlled, deliberate. The kind of stillness that made your instincts rise before your thoughts could catch up.Dominic.My fingers tightened around the edge of the door, every instinct screaming at me to shut it, to lock it, to pretend this wasnāt happeningābut my body refused to cooperate. I couldnāt move, not when his gaze had already slipped past me, uninvited, scanning
~ Avelyn ~Kyle didnāt say anything when he handed it to me.He didnāt look at me either.It was such a small thing, the way his fingers brushed mine for the briefest second before letting go, but it felt heavier than anything he had ever said to me. There was no anger in his face this time, no sharp edge to his voice like in the car, no accusation hanging between us. Just⦠absence.And somehow, that hurt more.I stood there, watching his retreating back, waitingāfoolishlyāfor him to turn around, to say something, anything, even if it was harsh. Even if it was cruel. I would have taken that over this silence.But he didnāt stop.He didnāt turn.He just walked away like there was nothing left to hold on to.My fingers tightened around the small box in my hand, and for a moment, I didnāt open it. I just stood there, staring at it like it might burn me if I looked too closely. Like I already knew what it was, and opening it would only make it real.When I finally did, my breath caught in
~ Veronica ~Failure had a sound.It wasnāt loud and it wasnāt dramatic.It was quiet⦠suffocating⦠the kind that sat in your chest long after everything had gone still.And right now, it was all I could hear.The teacup in my hand trembled ever so slightly before I set it down with controlled precision against the saucer. Anyone looking at me would think I was calm. Composed. Untouched.But beneath the surface, something vicious clawed its way up my throat.Last night had been perfect.Every detail accounted for. Every movement calculated. I had waited, endured, tolerated his distance for over a year, playing the role expected of me while he looked through me like I was nothing more than a decorative piece placed at his side.A wife in name.An afterthought in truth.And yet⦠I had still been patient. Because patience, I had learned, always paid off.Except last nightāMy fingers curled slightly on the table as the memory replayed itself whether I wanted it to or not.The tray had
ā Xander āWaking up felt⦠wrong.Not in the way one would expect after a long night or too little sleep, but in a way that sat deeper than the body, something that lingered beneath the skin like a memory refusing to fully surface.My eyes opened to the ceiling, unmoving for a moment as I let the silence settle.The room was too still, too quiet.And yetāNot untouched.A faint crease formed between my brows as I pushed myself up slowly, the sheets shifting against my skin. The first thing I registered was the dull heaviness in my limbs, not exhaustion, not quite pain either, but something in between. My body felt used, strained in a way that didnāt align with rest.That alone was enough to make me pause.I sat there for a moment longer, letting my gaze drift across the room.Nothing appeared out of place at first glance.The furniture stood exactly where it should. The lighting was unchanged. The structure of the room remained intact, familiar.But the longer I lookedā¦The more the
~ Avelyn ~The hospital lights felt too bright, too clean and unforgiving.By the time we got there, my body had started to shut down in ways I couldnāt explain. It wasnāt sleep. It wasnāt relief either. It felt like something in me had simply reached its limit and decided to stop responding.But my mindā¦My mind refused to stop.Ciara.That was the only thing keeping me upright.Kyle didnāt waste a second. The moment we stepped through those doors, he was already moving ahead of me, his voice sharp, controlled, authoritative in a way I had only seen a few times before.āClear a room. Now.āPeople moved.Fast.Not because they understood everything, but because something in his tone didnāt allow hesitation.I followed behind him, clutching the small storage pack that held the blood. I retrieved it from Kyle just before we stepped out of the car. My fingers had gone numb around it, but I didnāt loosen my grip. I couldnāt.It felt like the only thing tethering me to reality.Ciara was
~ Avelyn ~The rain had stopped by morning, but the mansion still felt drenched in it. The windows were streaked with silver trails, and the garden outside glistened like someone had spilled a jar of stars across it. I sat at the long breakfast table, staring at the steam curling off my cup. Everyt
~ Avelyn ~I searched for them until the music started to sound like noise, loud noise pounding against my skull. But Kyle and Ariana were no were in sight.The corridors in this place all looked the same and it was making my head dizzy. Seeing the same old glossy floors, mirrored walls, perfume an
~ Avelyn ~The stage fell away first. Not the lights, not the music the stage itself, the world beneath my feet collapsing into a single moment that smelled like sweat and spilled wine and panic. I remember the fall, the way the floor came up to meet me faster than my brain could decide whether t
At first, it was just a few drops. Tiny, cold pinpricks on my face that felt almost gentle.Then the rain found its rhythm.It started threading down the stone walls, tracing the cracks, dripping onto my knees, my palms, my hair, until every breath tasted like metal and dirt. The smell of wet eart







