Page 26 of Cruel Cravings

He gives no reaction. He simply stares down at me like he’s content in such twisted and tense silence.

I squirm in his hold, both hands coming up to pry at one of his. His wrist is so thick it makes up almost both of mine. His palm so wide, it’s the size of my face. He’s big enough to do serious damage if he really wanted to.

As I claw at him, signaling I want him to release me, his grip loosens on my throat. His thumb drifts toward my lips, running along the curve.

Confusion fills me up.

What does he want from me? Who is he? Why is he after me?

I go still where I’m pinned against the station wagon, my brows knitting at the questions I’ll probably never have answers to.

His thumb presses against the seam of my lips and I realize what he wants. I part them for him, letting him push his thumb into my mouth.

By peering up at him closely enough, I can begin to make out the features of his mask. The large flat contour of a nose and deep, dark eyes that are disturbing. The lines entrenched into the mask and the horns that sit up top.

It’s a minotaur.

The paralyzing fear and panic that have driven me now twist into a new emotion that I can’t place. I can’t begin to describe it as I hold his gaze and do what I need to in this moment. I let my tongue trace over the pad of his thumb, pursing my lips to lightly suck on it.

His breathing deepens. The sound both monstrous yet familiar.

He grabs the side of my face with his other hand and then replaces his thumb with two of his fingers. They slide right past my lips, across my tongue, farther down my throat. The tears I’ve been holding in begin to fall as he hits the back of my throat and my gag reflex takes over. I retch around his fingers, still holding his gaze.

It’s surreal and disorienting.

Terrifying and strange.

But I can’t break eye contact. I can’t look away. I choke on his thick fingers and realize the pounding in my ears is blood rushing through my veins. It’s blood flooding my sex.

He withdraws his fingers slicked with my saliva and then I gasp as he reaches between us. I’m helpless pressed up against the station wagon, adrenaline coursing, as he forces his hand down my pants.

His slick long fingers sink into my pussy, going deep, stretching my walls?—

I jerk against the steering wheel with drool dripping down my chin. The bright lights of a passing semi-truck burn my retinas, waking me from my sleep. The driver blares his deafening horn at me as he speeds by on the highway.

It takes me several more seconds to realize I’m on the shoulder of the road. I must’ve pulled over.

Wiping my mouth, I’m in a daze glancing around at the dark landscape.

He’s nowhere to be found.

“Does that mean it wasn’t…?” I whisper. I get my answer when I turn the key and the station wagon rumbles to life. Carefully, I merge onto the highway, still unable to shake the feeling that what happened between us wasn’t just a dream.

Every moment of it was real.

8.Brontë

The Abyss - The Weeknd featuring Lana del Rey

The day Jael Hendrix was released from Brighter Days Psychiatric Hospital was the worst day of my life.

It was the realization that the only thing that kept me going was being taken away. Over the years, I had spent every waking moment thinking about her. I tracked her every move and learned everything I could about her.

Without her, I am nothing. A fragment of a shadow. A flicker of darkness in the corner of the room. Some creature that lost its humanity a long time ago.

She grounds me, even when she doesn’t notice I’m there.

Deep down, she must know. She has to sense the connection. It’s why she’s fixated on the idea of me. She needs to know she’s not alone.

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