Chapter 5

Celeste completely dominated my dreams.

Ever since she locked me up, I was constantly plotting my escape.

She was incredibly attentive, gentle as water. If not for the cold metal touching my wrists and ankles, I would have truly believed I’d found love.

“I’m saving you, not hurting you,” I once cried, my voice raw and hoarse. “How could you do this to me?”

I first met her on a cliffside trail. She slipped, and I caught her just in time.

She insisted on treating me to dinner. During the meal, we were amazed to discover how remarkably similar our tastes were – from movies to our plans for the future.

I admitted I liked childish things, like having my entire room filled with plush toys.

Celeste did too.

Just like now, this soft, large bed was piled high with all sorts of bunny plushies. Their glass-bead eyes watched impassively as she pinned me beneath her, unable to move.

“I only want what’s best for you,” her dark, deep eyes were like bottomless pools, locking onto mine. “Just be a good boy, stop thinking about running away, and I’ll let you go.”

To escape, I retracted all my claws, becoming utterly obedient to her.

“Good boy.” She finally revealed a satisfied, brilliant smile, then lowered her head and bit my neck.

It didn't hurt, but it carried the humiliation of a declaration of ownership.

I could clearly feel the surge of her obsessive passion, her burning breath on my skin, an suffocating aggression.

I felt nauseous.

It was a primal revulsion, mixed with fear and disgust, churning in my stomach.

She gently unlocked my chains, then brazenly began to toy with my body.

The chains clicked open, a sound that should have been the gospel of freedom, but now it felt like the prelude to hell opening.

The cold of the metal had barely receded from my wrists when her fingertips covered them.

It wasn't a caress of desire, but more like… an appraisal.

She was like a calm artisan admiring a masterpiece nearing completion. Her fingertips traced my collarbone, my chest, my waist, with an irresistible pressure, as if branding her mark onto my skin.

The air was thick with her cool perfume, mingling with the cold sweat of my fear, transforming into a sticky, oppressive scent.

I was forced to tilt my head back, looking at the dim light on the ceiling, feeling less like a person and more like an object laid bare, stripped of all dignity and the right to resist.

Her kisses were cold and damp, falling on my eyelids, my lips, my jaw.

Each kiss was like a mark, an occupation.

She whispered in my ear, those gentle words now more chilling than the most malicious curse.

“Julian, you’re mine.”

“Every inch of your skin, every breath you take, is mine.”

My body trembled almost imperceptibly, not from excitement, but from extreme humiliation and fury.

I clenched my teeth, swallowing every protest and scream.

Because I knew that any hint of disobedience would only result in a longer, more desperate confinement.

She handled my limbs as if I were a cherished piece of porcelain, exploring every corner of my body.

In her eyes, there was no lust, only a near-insane obsession and possessiveness.

I felt my soul being slowly peeled from my body, floating in mid-air, coldly observing this shell endure everything.

That night was absurd and endless.

I quietly put on my clothes, tightly clutching the car keys I’d stolen from her jacket pocket.

Like a startled rabbit, I fled desperately from that cage.

But I never expected her to wake up so quickly.

Another black car blocked me on the winding mountain road, like a silent beast.

Celeste got out of the car, her dark hair glowing softly in the morning sun. She looked at me quietly, a gentle, almost resigned smile on her face.

“You lied to me,” she said softly, her voice scattered by the wind.

In that moment, every nerve in my brain snapped.

I slammed on the accelerator, driving straight at her.

I’d rather be a murderer than return to that hell.

There were no cameras here. Let her rot.

But I never thought she’d still be alive.

Not only alive, but brought into my home by my foolish brother.

I couldn’t imagine how she would drag me back into the abyss once her memory returned.