The Gaslight Effect Novels & Stories

A reaction that only I could bring out of her. "You can't do it, huh? You're all talk and no action." I said as I leaned back into the bed and let out a deep sigh. “You say you don't want me sick, yet you can't fulfill my wish so that I can become healthy.” I could see her shaking at my words and I knew it was working. I was going to gaslight her as much as possible… make her vulnerable and break her to the point where she knew that onlyI was in control.

You deserved to feel like you were enough, without having to prove it, without being measured against someone else’s shadow. I’m sorry for gaslighting you. For every time I told you, “You’re overreacting.” For every time I said, “That never happened.” For every time I made you doubt your own memory, your own instincts, your own feelings. You were right more times than I’ll ever admit out loud. You saw things clearly. You felt things deeply. And instead of respecting that, I made it my mission to blur your reality until you didn’t know what to believe anymore.

More intense and our conversations go deeper, darker, and touching on things I don't discuss with anyone else. "Tell me about the worst day of your marriage," he says, his grey eyes steady on mine. Most people don't ask questions like that, most people avoid the darkness but Marco doesn't flinch from it. So I tell him, about the day Leo convinced me I was crazy for being upset that he'd disappeared for three days without calling. About how he twisted everything until I was apologizing to him for being worried. "Gaslighting," Marco says quietly. "Classic abuser tactic."

And it had all been for nothing. "I was so stupid," I said. "I actually thought he loved me. In the beginning, I believed it. The gifts, the attention, the way he made me feel chosen. I thought I'd won something. But I was just convenient. Just another possession he could discard when I stopped being useful." "You weren't stupid. You were hopeful. There's a difference." Elodie squeezed my hands. "He's a gaslighter. A master manipulator. He made you doubt your own reality until you couldn't trust yourself. That's not your fault. That's his sickness."

His heart leapt, watching her fight to free her mind and her wandering thoughts. "I will try to rummage through your brain and I want you to try and block me by storing your memories away." Emma's eyes popped wide open, glaring at him with incredulity "Are you nuts? Bonkers! That's what you are! How am I supposed to know where in my feeble brain to store my bleeping memories?" "Such fierceness! If you calm yourself, you will sense it. It's part of our Schatten traits. Close your eyes and seek it."

I was gaslighting the man who had once been my fated mate, using the very technology he had used to erase me. "A data-leak?" Kael stepped closer, invading my space until the heat from his chest felt like a brand. "I felt it in my blood. It didn't feel like a file. It felt like... like a missing limb." I pressed my back against the cold metal of the server rack. "The mind plays tricks when the city formats. Serena told you that herself. You’re experiencing phantom feedback—a common side effect of the rejection process."

It was smooth. "See?" Cale said. "If you fell, there would be a mark. Physics, Elion. Action and reaction. There is no mark. Therefore, there was no fall." Elion stared at himself. The logic was sound. The evidence was irrefutable. But the feeling remained. The ghost of the pain. "You're gaslighting me," Elion whispered to his reflection. "I'm grounding you," Cale corrected. "I'm keeping you in reality." "Which reality?" Elion asked. "Yours or mine?"

Alaric opened it for her, shooting me one last look of absolute pity before following her out. ​The door clicked shut. ​I was alone again. ​I sank back against the pillows, my entire body trembling. The gaslighting had been a masterclass. They had taken my physical weakness, my psychological trauma, and my desperate hope, and woven them into a net of absolute self-doubt. ​I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes, fighting a dry sob.

When he saw the worried look on my face, he encouraged me again and said, "You got good grades in college, had a near-perfect thesis, and your work résumé from the past few years is also considerable. "Don't let Johann's gaslighting manipulate you into thinking that you're no good. Don't let him affect our confidence. You're not even 30 yet—your life has only just begun!" I rediscovered my own value with Cedric's help, seeing myself through his eyes. During my marriage to Johann, his belittling and gaslighting left me completely insecure, and his emotional abuse drained me of all my mental strength. I ended up introverted, sensitive, anxious, and even suspicious of everything because of him.

“You can’t just trap people like that! That’s ILLEGAL! There are… building codes!” The house hummed. Slow. Deliberate. Condescending. “Oh my God,” I groaned. “You’re doing this on purpose. You’re actually trapping me here like some Victorian chaperone because you don’t trust me to deal with my emotions.” The lights brightened. “Yes.” I threw my hands up. “Great. Amazing. Perfect. My house is gaslighting me.” A loud metallic buzz rattled the pipes. “I HEARD THAT!” I turned back to Lucien.