Page 16

FIFTEEN

DORIAN

I knew she was obsessed with me—just as I was with her. But I? I was a reckless fool. And I had no control left in me. I could’ve snapped her neck in an instant—no hesitation, no remorse.

Of course, I wanted to love her. But not before she paid.

She needed to learn . She had to understand I was the axis her world spun around. Call it narcissism if you want—but that’s who I was. If she wanted my love, she had to fall for the blackest corners of my soul first.

That’s how you know someone’s yours. If they love your darkest parts without flinching, they’re meant for you. If they ran, they were only chasing a dream. And me? I don’t do halfway. I’m all or nothing, baby.

Troy was gone. Just a memory now. Next, her father. Then my mother. Once they were out of the picture, it would just be us. Alone. And finally, the house could breathe again.

But the house… it started pushing back.

Rooms she wasn’t supposed to enter cracked themselves open. Secrets I’d buried clawed their way to the surface.

She wasn’t supposed to see it. No one ever had. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t fix it. I was breaking apart. And she couldn’t stitch me back together.

My hands still wrapped around her throat. She gasped, clawing at my wrists.

“I had to take them all,” I whispered, breath hot against her skin. “They told me to.” My jaw clenched. Teeth bared. “If I didn’t take them… they would’ve taken you—“

I faltered. ”—from me.”

“Who?” she coughed as I loosened my grip. “Who, Dorian?”

“Them.” I turned toward the corner of the room, eyes wide. “You don’t see them?”

She scanned the room—blank walls, silent air. No one.

But sometimes, even I wasn’t sure anymore if they were real —or just shards of my own broken head.

“Ghosts of the psyche,” I muttered, pinning her against the wall again. “They chant it over and over—kill, kill, kill—and chop, chop, chop—until there’s nothing left but pieces.”

I leaned in, voice a hiss. “And I won’t let them take you too. I won’t let you be another damn poster.”

I shoved the dollhouse aside.

Beneath it, twenty missing posters. Faces of children. Vanished since 1978.

“Someone took them,” I rasped, voice cracking with a sob I couldn’t let out. “Right here. In this room.”

She stared in horror.

“They’re calling me,” I whispered. “They want me to free them.”

“Dorian… no one’s here,” she whispered, stepping closer. Her hand brushed my cheek, soft and trembling.

“They’re everywhere ,“ I breathed, carefully placing the dollhouse back over the posters.

She didn’t believe me. No one ever did.

Only I saw them. Only I heard them.

Something inside me was splitting wide open. Something rotting behind my eyes. One second, I’m sane, fine. The next?

A crazy, crazy, crazy man.

My eyes rolled back again—I always did that when the breaking point was close. And she saw it. But this time, instead of pushing me away and running, she stepped closer. She pulled me into her, brushed her lips against mine, and kissed me.

She loved me. I knew she did. And I was too selfish to let her. I had to ruin it first, destroy us, believing somehow that in all the wreckage, everything would still be okay.

She was my little stepsister. I was supposed to protect her. But how could I protect her from anything, when I couldn’t even protect myself?

I lifted her into my arms, and carried her out of the room, closing the door behind us like it had never existed. I took her to her bedroom, and closed that door, too—like the world might come crashing in before I even had the chance to worship her the way I always meant to.

I laid her down on the bed. She wore only the oversized shirt I’d dressed her in while she slept. Now, I pulled it off her. Her nipples were hard—so achingly hard. I leaned down, cupped her breast, and took her nipple between my teeth.

Nothing was like it had been before. Tonight, I didn’t want punishment. I just wanted to let her love me. The way it should’ve been all along.

I could always punish her tomorrow.

She knelt before me, her blue eyes staring right through me, like she could see my soul. She braided her hair into two pigtails, one on each side. And when she was done, she reached for the zipper of my jeans. She pulled it down and tugged my pants low.

My cock sprang free, already hard, already hers. She knew exactly what she was doing. She always did. This wasn’t about innocence or shame. It was about forgetting the ghosts that haunted both of us.

She wrapped her fingers around my cock, guiding him to her mouth. She teased the tip with her tongue, slowly, then took him in—deeper and deeper—twisting her tongue along the underside of my shaft. One hand played with my balls, gently. The other pulled my cock deeper down her throat.

My eyes rolled back. I moaned, grinding my teeth, staring up at the ceiling like there might be a trace of salvation hidden in the plaster.

There wasn’t.

There was only her.

She quickened the pace, gagging softly as she shoved me deeper. I looked down—saw a tear slide down her cheek—and caught it with my thumb before it fell.

Then I took her face in my hands and thrust into her mouth, relentlessly. Her eyes started to roll back. She gagged, struggling to breathe.

I slapped her cheek. “Take it all the way, little stepsister.”

And she did. I felt her throat tighten around me—and then I pulled out, making her choke. I grabbed her neck and pulled her up to face me. I kissed her, deeply, tasting myself on her tongue. Then I twisted her around and shoved her down onto the bed, her back arched, her ass in the air for me.

I slapped her ass, spread her open, and pushed her inside.

She gasped.

“No mercy,” I said, watching her.

I drove deeper, harder. Her head tilted back, her mouth falling open in a silent cry.

“Love me harder,” she whispered. “Show me.”

“Love you?” I laughed, grabbing her by the pigtails and pulling her head back, her back still arched, her body trembling. “I’m going to fuck you like no one ever has. I’ll love you later, Trouble.”

And I did.

I pounded into her, her ass slapping against my hips, the sound echoing through the room. She was already tightening around me, and I hadn’t even begun. I kept going, relentless, as her moans grew louder, filling the space between us.

Each thrust went deeper than the last. Her eyes fluttered shut, her mouth falling open, screaming my name between gasps—sharp, consecutive, desperate. She was getting tighter around me, clenching harder, and just as I felt her near the edge, I pulled out.

I saw another snake coming from under the bed, coiling down my leg like it had been waiting for its turn.

This house was full of them.

I pushed Lenore back onto the bed, my voice low. “Lie down. Don’t move.”

She obeyed. Arms stretched above her head, body spread out, her hair tangled, half-braided, half-loose.

I picked up the snake from the floor and placed it gently on her chest.

She gasped.

Snake slithered toward her face, hissing softly as it wound its way up her body. And while it moved, I spread her legs and leaned in.

I buried my face in her heat. My tongue gently circled her clit, tasting her, feeling her tremble beneath me. I looked up, and saw the snake easing into her parted lips, slipping between them as she welcomed it, barely breathing.

Still, I kept going. I slid two fingers inside her, then curled them, hooking her to me. I pulled her open from the inside, and her thighs began to shake.

“Yes, please,” she whispered, barely audible. “Please… more.”

I obeyed. My tongue danced over her clit, her wetness dripping down my hand, her body shivering as she climbed closer to the edge. I could feel how close she was.

I pulled my fingers free, sat back on my knees, and dragged her body toward me.

Then I shoved my cock back inside her with a single, hard thrust.

She gasped—airless, raw—her chest rising as the snake slid from her mouth and coiled down to her breasts, circling one before gliding to her neck.

I kept thrusting, deeper, harder, until I couldn’t go any further. She was so tight, so unbelievably tight. And just as she broke apart beneath me, I pushed even deeper.

My eyes rolled back. I was right there with her. She started gasping, her body locking around me as I pulsed inside her—filling her, emptying myself into her, letting her squeeze every last drop from me.

And as the last pulse left me, I collapsed forward, bracing myself above her, panting against the heat of her neck. The snake coiled lazily around her collarbone now, its tongue flicking at her skin like it, too, had claimed her.

She was soaked in sweat and breathless, her eyes unfocused, still trembling beneath me like her body hadn’t realized it was over. Or maybe it wasn’t.

I stayed inside her. Neither of us was ready to let go.

Her fingers brushed against my side, trailing gently, grounding me. The house groaned somewhere behind the walls. Shadows crept longer like they’d been watching.

“I can still feel you,” she whispered. Her voice was rough, hollowed out from all the moaning, from all the gasping.

“You will,” I murmured back, brushing her hair from her face. “You’ll feel me for days.”

She smiled. A dark, quiet kind of smile. The kind that only came when you’d been ruined in exactly the way you asked to be.

The snake slid down her shoulder and back onto the sheets, disappearing beneath them like it had never existed. Maybe it hadn’t. Maybe none of it had. Maybe we were still dreaming.

But my cock was still inside her.

I pulled out slowly, feeling the wet warmth of her still clinging to me. Her thighs twitched, reflexively trying to keep me there.

I sat back on the edge of the bed, looking at her.

Her legs were still spread, her body a mess of sweat, cum, possession.

She closed her eyes again, and for a moment she looked peaceful—devastated, yes, but at peace in it. As if all the chaos, all the taboo, all the things we couldn’t say out loud had finally stopped screaming.

Then I walked to the window and cracked it open. The night air flooded in, sharp and cold. Outside, the woods waited dark, alive. I could hear the hissing again. Faint, crawling closer.

She would sleep like this. Open. Claimed. And I would watch the night to make sure it didn’t take her away.

Not yet.

I came back to her bed, and I laid down, closing my eyes on her chest. I finally found peace. She was my peace, and all my demons were calm when she was around. She tamed me, and my broken heart.