Into the Dark

by Dana Isaly

Drink after drink, my prey throws them back like it’s her damn job. Something turns in my gut at that. I don’t want her to get drunk and stumble home. Doesn’t she know there are psychopaths and rapists out there? Doesn’t she know anyone could just walk up and take advantage of her? She is mine.

I’m the girl you see bringing a book with her to social events because I would rather be reading, and because I need something to distract myself from my social anxiety.

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

The eagerness with which he kisses takes my breath away. I want him to drink the soul from my body like a leech. It’s his now, anyway. He can have any part of me that he wants.

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.”

“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.”

“I don’t want to leave. And I don’t need your feelings. I need you to devour and dominate me. I need to be a part of your every waking thought. I need you to want me, not love me. Love can be broken. Love can fade. Love ends in cheating and divorces and trauma.” He blinks and looks like he wants to interrupt me but lets me carry on my rant. “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.”

“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.”

There’s nowhere safer for me than the arms of my serial killer.