He unbuttoned a few buttons of his shirt, his hooded eyes fixed on me with a look that sent a cold shiver down my spine. I instinctively backed away, every step feeling heavier than the last. Then, with a slow, deliberate smirk, he began crawling toward me, a predator savoring the moment.
My heart pounded so hard I could hear it echo in my ears. The shadows in the room seemed to close in, and for a terrifying second, I couldn't recognize the person in front of me. The boy I once knew, gentle, soft-spoken, always smiling, was gone. What I saw now was someone else entirely, someone darker.
"Stay aw-away from me," I stammered, my voice trembling. "I SAID STAY AWAY FROM ME!"
My scream cracked through the silence, but instead of stopping him, it only made something inside him snap. His expression twisted into anger, raw and wounded. I could see the fury burning behind his eyes, but beneath it, there was something else… hurt.
He hated my refusal. I knew it. I could see the disbelief in his face, as if my fear was a betrayal he couldn't comprehend.
I tried to retreat, my legs trembling beneath me, but he reached out suddenly and grabbed my ankle, dragging me down with a strength that stole the air from my lungs. I gasped, kicking, clawing , the sound of my own fear filling the room.
"Why, Anna?" His voice cracked with emotion, rage tangled with desperation. "Why are you refusing me? Am I that bad, huh?"
The question hit me harder than his grip. His words weren't just angry, they were broken, filled with confusion and something heartbreakingly human. I looked at him, at the boy I once laughed with, trusted, and I couldn't find that version of him anywhere in his eyes now.
He reached for my face, and instinct took over. I yanked my head back, pushing his hand away with every ounce of strength I had left. But he moved faster, his body hovered over mine, and in an instant, he pinned both my wrists above my head.
The room fell silent, except for our ragged breathing. His face hovered inches from mine, and for the first time, I saw tears glinting at the edge of his eyes, not weakness, but a war inside him. And all I could think was how love, when twisted by pain and obsession, could become something monstrous.
"Don't... Refuse.... My.... Touch, Anna."
Each word hit like a strike. His voice trembled with something wild, anger, desperation, pain, I couldn't tell which. His jaw was tight, his nostrils flaring, his eyes dark and unreadable.
I froze. My throat locked up, and for a moment, I forgot how to breathe. Tears blurred my vision until his face became a mess of shadow and light. He looked both furious and broken, like someone fighting ghosts only he could see.
"I hate it when you do that," he said again, quieter this time, almost a whisper, but no softer.
My heart pounded so hard that it hurt. The walls felt like they were closing in, trapping the air. 'I can't escape.' The thought hit me with a wave of panic so strong my body started shaking. Every instinct screamed for me to run, but my legs refused to move.
"Please… just leave me-----"
The rest of my words were swallowed by his lips over my mouth. Everything blurred, a rush of movement, the sound of my own cry, the sting of tears against my skin. My world became a whirl of panic and disbelief.
I twisted, trying to push him away, but he was stronger, far stronger. His hands were ironed around my wrists. My breath came out in short, ragged gasps. The room felt too small to hold all the fear inside me.
I let out muffled cries, twisting my upper body in desperation, hoping he would let me go. But he only tightened his grip around my wrists, pressing his body against mine.
His breath was hot against my skin, and I could feel every tremor of his movement. He bit my lips again and again, sucking them with rough urgency until they stung. I was out of breath, my chest heaving as I struggled helplessly in his hold.
I could feel my strength fading as fear took over. My body trembled uncontrollably, and a cold numbness began spreading through me, not from his touch, but from betrayal. It was the worst kind of pain, when someone you trusted becomes the one you fear most.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, but he didn't seem to see them. Or maybe he did, and that only fed whatever storm had taken over him.
I hated that moment.
I hated him for what he'd become.
And I hated myself for still searching his eyes for the person I once loved.
The room was silent again except for our uneven breathing. My mind went blank, the kind of emptiness that comes right before everything breaks.
He pinned both my hands above my head, his grip unrelenting. His eyes were half-closed, lost somewhere far from me , lost in something dark and self-consuming. For a heartbeat, I saw it clearly, he wasn't seeing me anymore, only the image in his mind, the one that fed his hunger and drowned out my fear.
My body trembled beneath him. My mind screamed, see me, please see me, but he didn't. The person hovering over me wasn't the boy I knew, it was a stranger wearing his face.
And then, suddenly, his fingers loosened. His hands slipped down my arms, tracing the path of my skin as if nothing was wrong, as if this was love.
Something inside me snapped.
I found strength I didn't know I had.
With a surge of fury and terror, I pushed him away with all my might. My hand moved before I even realized what I was doing, the sound of the slap cracked through the air like lightning.
"How dare you!" My voice was raw, shaking, but loud enough to shatter the silence between us. "Get out. Right now!"
He froze. The room hung still for a moment, his chest heaving, my tears still wet on my face. When he finally looked at me, the fire in his eyes was gone. What remained was confusion, shame, and a kind of pain I couldn't read.
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out. Then, without a word, he turned and walked toward the door.
The sound of it closing echoed in my ears long after he was gone.
And I stayed there, breathing hard, shaking, my heart thundering like it wanted to break free. The silence that followed was heavier than any scream.
I wiped my mouth roughly, desperate to erase the feeling that still burned on my skin. The taste of blood lingered, metallic, bitter, as I stared at the red smear on my fingertips. My lips were bleeding.
My knees trembled as I stood from the bed, my reflection catching in the mirror across the room. For a moment, I didn't recognize the girl staring back. Her eyes were wide and hollow, her face streaked with tears, her breath uneven.
Fear.
That was all I could see. Fear that lived not just in my eyes but deep beneath my skin, cold, consuming, endless.
The sobs came quietly at first, then harder, until I could barely breathe. I pressed my palm against the mirror as if I could steady myself, but the reflection only shattered further in my mind. I never expected this from him. Never from Edward.
The name itself hurt. The boy I thought I knew, the one who once smiled shyly when he held my hand, who listened to my rambling stories, who made me laugh over nothing, that Edward was gone. The one who stood in his place now felt like a stranger wearing his face.
I stumbled back to the bed, sinking onto it as my body finally gave up. Curling into myself, I buried my face in the pillow, letting the tears fall freely. There was no one to hear them, no one to stop me, no one to comfort me, so I let it all out.
"When did you become like this?" I whispered into the silence, my voice trembling. "You were never like this…"
Memories began flooding in, the way his eyes used to soften when he looked at me, the sound of his laugh, the warmth of his hand. Every memory stabbed deeper, until it became unbearable. The Edward in my memories and the Edward from tonight… they couldn't be the same person.
He wasn't. He couldn't be.
If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would've sworn the man who hurt me was someone else entirely. But it was him, my Edward, and that truth broke something inside me.
"Were you always like this?" I whispered again, my voice raw. "Were you just pretending to be kind… pretending to be innocent just to get close to me?"
The question hung heavy in the air. No answer came. Just the hum of silence pressing against my ears.
I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and took a shaky breath. My body was still trembling, but beneath the fear, something else stirred, the faint spark of resolve.
I can't stay here.
The thought came clear and sharp. I need to leave.
I looked around the room, his room, and the weight of it suffocated me. The air still carried his scent, the bed still held the imprint of what had just happened. I wanted to run, to scream, to vanish. But my phone was gone. My way out, gone.
A harsh truth hit me: I couldn't fight him. Not now. Not like this.
But deep inside, I promised myself one thing, I would find a way. Maybe n
ot tonight, maybe not tomorrow, but I wouldn't let this cage close around me forever.
To be continued