Into the Dark

by Dana Isaly

I’m hunting when I see her.

Once again, my girl doesn’t seem to care.

The chase is on.

Doesn’t she know anyone could just walk up and take advantage of her? She is mine. Ours, my demon reminds me.

She smells like flowers. I like it. It reminds me of funerals.

“It’s probably because I have zero self-worth and because my parents were divorced when I was five. I’m ugly, I stumble over my words, I’m too scared to go anywhere new because of my crippling anxiety, and I don’t understand why anyone would want to associate themselves with me. And it’s so, so easy to leave. So when someone shows any interest in me, I cling to it like a life preserver. Their attention keeps me afloat. It keeps me out of the darkest corners of my mind where I love to retreat when everything gets too hard.”

“Because if you’re going to love me, I need you to love me with every single fiber of your being,” My head swivels and looks back on her. “I want someone’s full and unyielding attention. I want someone to look at me and only me. That way I know that person will never leave me.” “That’s not love, Lyra. That’s an obsession. Love is forgiving and always evolving. There’s room to grow and change where there’s love. But with obsession, it can only go one way. Obsession will consume you in a way that you can’t come back from.” “Then I want obsession.”

A laugh escapes me as I turn to look at him. He is so at odds with himself. Sometimes he’s cocky and sure of himself, sending me smirks and staring at my ass as I walk away. And other times, like now, he seems like he’s surprising himself by the words coming out of his mouth.

I feel my own lips spread into the widest smile I’ve shown in a very, very long time.

“Elijah.” Fuck me, my name coming out of her mouth does something ridiculous to my chest.

The only way I know to blow off steam the way I need to is to drive this fucker like I have a death wish. Because if I go home right now, feeling how I’m feeling, I won’t have a present for Lyra.

“I just need to find someone that will obsess over me the way I obsess over them.”

let the hope bloom in my heart that maybe, just maybe, he could be the one to handle my obsession.

“It’s okay,” she says. “I understand. You never have to worry about what you say to me, Elijah. Everyone has a past. Most people have trauma. It may have made us what we are today, but that’s okay. Because I like what I see in front of me.”

When she walks out of the bathroom and smiles my way, I realize that’s exactly what it is. I’m fucking nervous. She’s slowly bringing something out of me that I didn’t even think existed. And I think that’s more terrifying than the thought of giving Jared to her as a present. A present that I expect her to kill.

It’s what I do. I hunt. And my demon liked you—I liked you. I couldn’t not follow you.”

“But you’re mine, and I don’t let people touch what’s mine.”

There’s something so erotic about what I think he’s done for me.

him. I feel like a caged bird, and I never want him to set me free.

She’s perfect, he coos.

She wipes the back of her hand across her mouth, smearing blood across her lips like war paint, and smiles. My demon all but bursts from my body. Ours. Ours. Ours.

“I am obsessed with you.”

“Your screams,” he murmurs as I come down from the high. “Those fucking screams are spiritual, Lyra.”

I would crawl inside of him if I could. I would drape his skin around me like a blanket, bathe in his sweat, and wear his scent like perfume. I am utterly and wholly his.

I am utterly and wholly hers. She has consumed me.

Where she is luminous and golden, I am murky and sinister. I will soak up her brilliant light like a black hole, and I can’t even be sorry about it. She will feed every dark, muddled part of my soul like the most delicious fruit. I will eat her whole, seeds and juices and rind, like a starving man gone mad.

I will give her whatever she wants. If she loves my monster, I can love her angel.

“I just killed someone, Elijah. And then I had sex with you. If you couldn’t tell, I’m all in.”

his expression fading into a darkness I’ve become accustomed to. It only tends to happen when he thinks he isn’t getting his way or he thinks I may be wanting to do something he won’t approve of.

want him to have me and control me in every way. I will happily be his puppet; he only needs to pull the strings.

But I’m no quitter. He’s mine now, and I won’t let him think I’m too weak to stick around. I can’t lose him just because I can’t handle a little murder.

“Is that tight cunt of yours dripping for me, Little Rat?” His voice is a raspy growl, and it sends a bolt of electricity down my spine.

“It’s not, Elijah,” I say, mocking his serious tone. “Black holes consume everything in their path, and all I’ve ever wanted was to be consumed in a way I had no hope of escaping.”

“Obsession doesn’t fade. Obsession dominates and controls us. It monopolizes our thoughts and our actions to the point we can’t see past it. That’s what you are to me, Elijah. You destroy anything else in my line of sight. You are it for me. Every part of my body cries out for you.”

Ours, ours, ours, my demon sings. Mark her.

She comes back with a gasp as the last of my seed spills into her, marking her and branding her as mine.

“Let me help you from now on,” she finally says, swinging her gaze back to me. “I never want to come home and find you on the floor like that again. I thought…” She trails off, and I search her face for an answer. “I don’t know, I just thought the worst. So don’t do that again, okay?”

“Home?” I ask, ignoring her request, and smile, flashing her my dimples to distract her. “You called this home.” “It is home. Anywhere with you is my home.”

I don’t know what home feels like. I never have. But if I am Lyra’s home, then she is mine. No one is going to take her from me. She may want to follow me into the d...

“Good girl,”

“Fuck yes, baby,” he moans into my ear. “You’re so fucking tight. You were made just for me, weren’t you?” he asks as he grips my hair and yanks back. “Your cunt was molded to be my personal little fuck sleeve, wasn’t it, Little Rat?”

For everything I take from her, I will try my hardest to give her a piece of myself in return.

Maybe with you around, I don’t feel like I have to do everything on my own anymore. So I don’t need him as much anymore. I just need you.”

“I can’t give you love, Lyra. But I can give you myself. You can have all of me. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t belong to myself anymore. I belong to you.”

“Good boy, No Name,”

What a way to go—being in the arms of the only person that could make me feel. I smile up at her and take her in one last time. I think, maybe, I love her.

Elijah may have left me behind, but he can’t keep me from following. With a final breath, the darkness calls, and I answer it.