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PLAYLIST
(Spotify)
Faouzia—Bad Dreams (stripped)
Cameron Hayes—Drown
Ashlynn Malia—Desperate
PVRIS—Hallucinations
Elita--Sober
Lacuna Coil—My Demons
Post Malone—Take What You Want
The Sweeplings—Under Your Spell
Billie Eillish—Everything I Wanted
EPIGRAPH
“There’s a rhythm to my chaos and it’s you.”
~Beau Taplin~
Recap
My body ached with every breath I took.
Alaric was gone.
He’d left me in his bed to sleep when I’d passed out with him inside me. He fucked me like a demonic beast. I’d gotten what I wanted. My pussy bled for him. I came more times than I could count.
The only thing I hadn’t done was choke on his cock, although I’m sure that was coming eventually
Moving from the bed, I made my way out into the hall wearing nothing but the come dried on my skin and the bruises from being fucked so hard I couldn’t walk straight.
Down the stairs, through the foyer, and into the great room.
That’s where I found him.
At least, I assumed it was him.
He was staring out at the water with a drink in his hand, the sky a deep gray from the start of dawn.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up,” he stated, not looking at me.
“I’m awake?”
“Are you?” He turned to face me, his expression obscure as his gaze traveled over my nudity.
I turned my head left to right, looking at my hands for a hint of what was going on.
My lids fluttered with the flash of a brunette, her wails echoing in my head.
“What have you done to me?” I whispered, rubbing my brow.
“You’ll feel better soon. I’ve administered the…let’s call it the antidote. Think of this as a withdrawal process.”
“Withdrawal from what?” I choked out, moving to sit on the nearest surface.
“Your trial runs. I’ve been giving you a special sort of two-part cocktail. Created it myself. Tested it out three weeks ago at DG.”
“What are you talking about. What trial runs?”
He tossed back a healthy amount of his drink.
“None of this will make much sense right now. I haven’t been letting you remember.”
I shook my head back and forth, gripping the sides when it felt as if my brain rocked with the motion.
“See, I don’t want to overwhelm you. Or bore you with a long, villainous speech. The logistics are simple. I purchased you. You’re mine. I’ve finally figured out what it is you need.”
“What I need…?”
He moved from the window and offered me his drink.
“Have some.”
Seeing he’d drank it and was fine, I snatched the glass and took a generous sip. I nearly coughed up a lung with the first swallow.
He laughed softly, pulling the glass away from me.
“You don’t need pills. You don’t need therapists. You just need me.”
Was he saying he’d taken my pills? A dull, throbbing sensation began at the back of my skull.
He reached out and ran a fingertip from the crook of my neck, down between my breasts. “Turn around, Catalina,” he ordered softly.
Without questioning why, I turned, sliding my legs beneath the piano.
“We’ve got company coming tomorrow night. I want you to have a clear head. Play this piece for me.” He tapped the sheet music on the shelf, the same sheet that had been sitting there since I’d arrived. Feeling like I was living an out-of-body experience, I read over the notes and different chords.
My fingers began to move. He stood behind me, tracing my bare skin with his fingertips, taking his time to move lower and lower.
My reality melded with my nightmares. The nightmares bled into my reality. I could no longer tell the difference. I wasn’t sure it mattered. I’d become addicted to his exclusive dose of madness. Caught in his web of insanity.
The piece was familiar. It needled the demons he was so determined to wake.
It filled the hole in my head and the emptiness within the house. A melody that haunted my dreams,
Beautiful, yet sinister. Like the man who asked me to play it.
Tragic, like the woman I pretended I wasn’t.
PROLOGUE
The live feed showed everything.
She was crying, but there were no tears left to spill, only empty sobs wracking her naked body so hard she almost looked as if she were having a seizure.
“It will all be over soon,” I soothed through the intercom. “You’ll be all better.”
She yelled something I didn’t bother attempting to make sense of. If she would hurry up, I could get home and be asleep at a decent hour.
“You’ll love me even when I’m gone?” she questioned the surrounding darkness.
I grinned and leaned forward.
“Of course.”
I didn’t hear her last words. She put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger before I had a chance to make her repeat herself.
CHAPTER ONE
Insanity.
The one thing I feared above all else.
Imagine being locked inside a wooden box lined with holes, floating in the center of a fog-covered lake. A sequence of questions rapid-fire through your brain.
How did you get here?
Was this real?
Why was this happening to you?
Now picture the box beginning to sink, your makeshift prison beginning to fill with cold, murky water. That’s when it begins to sink in, how dire your situation is. You desperately search for a way out but there’s no way to open the box.
