Page 66 of Emperor of Havoc

The inside of the mansion is as unsettling as its exterior. The air is thick with dust and abandonment, although recent signs of construction are evident—scaffolding, tools, and stacks of lumber litter the wide, echoing hallways. The faint smell of fresh paint and drywall mingles with the mustiness, creating a strange contrast.

Takeshi walks ahead of me, his step unhurried but purposeful. I follow, my eyes darting to the shadows that linger just out of view.

“You remember your friend Miyamoto?” he says, his voice breaking the eerie silence.

My jaw clenches.

Yeah, I remember the man who had me kidnapped before he tied me up and balanced me on a fucked up, booby-trapped seesaw opposite Hana Mori.

“It rings a bell,” I sign dryly.

Takeshi shrugs. “This was his house.”

I shiver, looking around. I’ve heard mixed things through the grapevine about Miyamoto’s fate. I mean he’s almost certainly dead, but no one in the Tokyo underworld seems to know exactly what the fucker's fatewas.

“What happened to him?” I sign.

Takeshi pauses, turning to face me. His lips curl into a slow, chilling smile. “I killed him. Right there, actually.” He gesturesto a spot on the floor a few feet away, as if he’s pointing out a particularly interesting piece of furniture rather than the site of someone’s death.

My throat goes dry. “Why would you bring me here?”

His smile deepens, and there’s both alarming and exciting in the way he steps nearer, closing the distance between us. “Because it’s dark,” he says, his voice dropping lower. “And there’s lots of space.”

The chill in the air sinks into my skin. “Space?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he reaches into his coat and pulls something out that sends my pulse into a frantic rhythm when I see it.

Theonimask. The same all-black, blank, freakishly terrifying one from the night of the initiation.

He slips it over his face with practiced ease, the demonic grin and sharp eyes transforming him, making him savage and wild. My breath catches as he takes another step toward me, the sound of his boots echoing against the hardwood.

“Space torun,” he growls, his voice distorted by the mask.

I take an involuntary step back, my heart pounding so loud I barely hear his next words.

“And you do want to run, don’t you, princess?” he murmurs, tilting his head. “Just like you want me to chase you, and catch you, andfuckyou?”

My back hits the wall and I’m suddenly hyper-aware of how alone we are in this cavernous, crumbling house. The dim lightcasts long shadows across the floor, making everything appear larger, more threatening.

“Don’t worry,” he says, his tone almost soothing. “There’s an out, if you need it. Your safe word will be Whisper.”

I tremble. “Leave my hands free,” I sign quickly.

His laugh is low, wrapping around me like smoke. “No promises there.”

“If you don't, I can’t?—”

“I know,” he interrupts, his voice soft but edged with steel. He steps even closer, the mask’s grotesque features mere inches from my face. “Now, are we going to play?”

My breath hitches. “And if I say no?”

“Oh, princess,” he growls, his voice a low rumble that almost reverberates through the walls. “Itrulyhope you do.”

18

KATARINA

The dark mansion feels alive.Every creak of the floorboards beneath my feet, every breath of wind sighing through the cracked windows, feels amplified. My pulse thrums in my ears, drowning out everything else.

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