It was the middle of their junior year in high school and he’d had to threaten away any little knuckleheads looking to take the newly bloomed Asha out on a date. The summer prior, puberty had been kind to her and the first semester of school was a culture shock of all her previous bullies now trying to be her friend and it wasn’t just cause Young was her best friend like usual. Her acne had vanished, she grew into her body with her previously known baby phat accentuating the womanly curves growing in, and after a summer spent with cousins her usually unkempt curls had a new style every week. Young hated the new attention she was getting, but she barely blinked at the change in everyone’s behavior. She was still the same Asha, the only thing that was different was how she looked and it wasn’t drastic, so even though their peers changed the way they were treating her, Asha treated them the same as always. That didn’t stop Young from panicking, suddenly face-to-face with the fact that t

She was led into a spacious hotel room laden with rose petals from the front door to the king bed and into the luxury bathroom that had a fresh bath hot and ready for the couple. Asha turned to him to ask how he made all of this happen while they were at the prom, but was hushed by the deep kiss he laid on her.“I always knew you were the one I wanted to have this moment with and I’m so glad I never gave it to anyone else.” Young had told her when he pulled away to watch Asha search out more kisses with her eyes closed. It had become a favorite pastime of his, drawing her into the weightless pleasure their kisses always created and pulling away to watch her swim in it a little longer than he did. The face she made as she searched out his lips again was priceless, no other girl had ever brought such contentment before Asha and Young had a feeling that would remain long after she left him.She knew he wasn’t buttering her up because that nervous stutter he had whenever he had to talk ou

Despite her best efforts, by the time graduation rolled around, Asha had reserved herself to the fact that she was fighting a losing battle. Though Young had seemingly accepted her words that day, he did not accept her attempts at helping him out of his self imposed hole after that. He tried and mostly succeeded at keeping things relatively the same at first, especially when they were at school, giving her and everyone around them the allusion that nothing had changed. They attended all the end of year events, graduation barbecues, and house parties, and he even maintained their weekly date night. Graduation day was the last day he allowed himself to fully enjoy the normalcy he’d found in the life he had with Asha and his friends that weren’t just his comrades for the benefits of being seen with the star football captain that everyone expected to go pro. By the time the summer rolled around however, it became obvious that he had no intention of letting her stick things out with him o

Not only was Young aware of the stress and harm Rell was bringing to Asha and her life but what her job contributed as well. Figuring the worst of them needed the most work, he started with her ex, haunting the evil man. Young found that he loved the gradually worsening attacks that instilled a creeping panic and fear in Rell. The easiest way in was with dreams, choosing to threaten the bastard on a skyscraper roof, dropping him off the edge to wake in the real world petrified with that fear of falling to his death. When he was feeling especially sadistic he would do the appear and disappear trick he’d seen in one too many movies. Sometimes he’d do it when Rell first woke up, standing in the corner with blood red eyes on display and disappearing in a literal blink of an eye. He especially did it whenever Rell got the idea to visit Asha’s job again, his sudden now you see me now you don’t routine always deterred the audacious man away from bothering the woman.Back in Asha’s world, she

After a few successful evenings with Asha to balance out all the retribution he was doling out psychologically he got back to the work that was left. A few moons before Halloween he got to the good part, pushing the entirety of everyone to the very edge, the tip of the iceberg before it split open and revealed its true nature.Rell had been his priority from jump but he finally managed to bring his plan to fruition. For the stalker and bane of Asha’s existence for the time that they were together, gifting his love a mountain load of trauma and grief to work through in their separation. Rell became increasingly aware in each dream just how much Young had seen and heard. Since he had access to memories of both the times when Rell was mistreating her in person and the times when he was speaking ill on his princess’ name, his anger towards the man was ten thousand fold and he was determined to unleash ten thousand demons worth of pent up rage to let it loose upon the man. But he had to mo