I tried to shove past him. He caught my wrist, not hard, just enough to remind me the past wasn’t gone, only sleeping.
I wrenched free, voice trembling. “You don’t know the first thing about me.”
He laughed. “That’s the thing. I know too much. I know exactly how you are. Complicated to the core.”
I couldn’t help myself. I spit the words like venom. “Look at you. Living in my friend’s basement. Maybe try fixing your own life before judging mine.”
That one landed. His face went flat, eyes cold as steel. “You think I don’t know I’m fucked up? You think I don’t hate it every fucking minute?”
“No,” I said. “I think you like it. I think you get off on being the broken one, always using it as an excuse to hurt other people.”
For a second, I thought he’d hit the wall. Smash something, scream. But he only stepped closer.
“You really think that’s what I want?” He whispered.
I glared, heart drumming in my throat, too loud. “I think you want control. I think you want to own all my scars. Even the ones you didn’t put there.”
“You can’t breathe when I’m around, huh?”
I swallowed. “No. I can’t.”
He licked his lips. Smile twisted. “Maybe you don’t want to.”
He was right on top of me, now, shadows caving in around the edges of my vision. Part of me wanted to slap him. Part of me wanted to drag him back to the basement and let him tear me open all over again.
My body hated me. My brain hated me more.
I shoved him, just enough to clear a few inches. “This is why I can’t stand you. Nothing’s ever simple. Nothing’s ever easy.”
He made a noise, almost a laugh, but not quite. “You wouldn’t know what to do with easy if it bit you in the ass.”
I wanted to scream at him. Instead, I just went limp. “Just leave me alone, Caiden. For once.”
He backed up, but only barely. His body filled the room. “You want that?”
I didn’t answer. Didn’t need to. The tension was crackling, crawling all over my skin.
That’s how Alex found us, standing three feet apart like two boxers waiting for the bell.
“Hey,” Alex said, voice light, pretending not to notice the sparks. “You guys lose the snacks, or just the memo?”
I forced a smile, fingers trembling around the glass of water I pretended to pour. “Just needed a break from your winning streak.”
Alex grinned, but his eyes went from me to Caiden and back again. “Ready for round two?”
I nodded, desperate to get away. Caiden lingered, glare fixed on Alex’s hand as he slid it around my waist.
The three of us returned to the living room. Sabrina had set up a board game. She smiled, but her eyes clocked me instantly, reading every micro-flinch.
Alex pulled me onto the couch, close enough that his breath caught in my hair. I should have felt safe. Should have wanted to wrap myself in his stability, let his confidence nurse me back to sanity.
But I couldn’t. Not when Caiden sat in the chair across from me, arms crossed, eyes burning a hole straight through my skull. He acted bored, but every cell of him was jacked with tension, vibrating with unfinished business.
I tried to ignore it. Tried to focus on the game, the cards, Alex’s touch. But my mind kept glitching, short-circuiting between past and present:
The cage. The glass. The way my body remembered every second of Blake’s hands, every word twisting slowly inside my brain.
The way Caiden’s voice would break sometimes, in the dark, telling me I wasn’t allowed to die. That he’d hurt anyone who tried to take me from him, even if he had to break me himself.
