ainst your skin like a warning. Trees stood tall and still, as if holding their breath, and the lake shimmered under the gray cl

way. The scent of cedarwood lingered in the walls, mixed with something sharper, like rust-or fear. The room was dim, l

aid, his voice d

re was nothing. Only cold control. I moved to the bed and lay d

he whisper of the wind outside. My fingers gripped the edges of the mattres

his hands like the sound of doom. Two th

itting up slightly. "You

eady steps, eyes dark with something I couldn't name. He chained my wrists to the headboard fir

s tr

climbed on

His movements were rough, every touch laced with domination rather than desire. Pain blossomed instantly,

voice shattering into sobs

thrust was agony, and the weight of him felt like being buried alive. My body convulsed in respon

, deeply-I felt death's breath against my face. My vision blurred, blackness cl

moments, my

d. My spirit curled up in a corner, trying not to look. I saw death

emed to say.

his hand. Someth

the bed, shaking and sore. I couldn't move. I didn't want to. The sheets were st

oom, and I wa

with t

e memory of w

of my own breathing

aning anymore. Eventually, I curled into myself,

ted

unning, for not fighting harder,

ouse had died. And the woman left be

-

ved on while I stayed frozen in place. The lake, visible through the cracked windowpan

ured. He returned like nothing had happened. He carried a tr

table and looked down a

eat," he s

, and my mind was too broken

pond, he sighed a

ogy. No remorse. Jus

oom. I nearly collapsed trying to stand under the shower. The water was cold, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

er, circling the dra

eflection didn't look like me. Hollow eyes. Swollen lips. Bruises bloomin

hen I

collapsed to the cold tile floor, my cries muffled by the towel

creamed

-

food, medicine, silence. Sometimes he watched me as I ate, sometimes he didn

saw not just the man who hurt me

en the inside of a cereal box I found in the cabinet. Anything

ering what had made him this way. And if

re if I wan

rev

thing: I'd su

g meant becoming

-

d said nothing. He sat at the edge of the be

most admiringly. "Most would

, my voice a wh

o a dark smile. "No

sed to give him the s

ed fearing him... was the

he day this ca

the day he

I would become the th

y came, he would

sed in pleasure?

silence? That's what