Page 72 of Immersed
They walked in tense silence with Levi hyperaware of every sound Asher made behind him. The man moved like a predator—silent, controlled, ready to strike. But now there was something else in his presence, a satisfaction that made Levi’s skin crawl.
He thinks he’s won something.And maybe he had. Maybe the moment Levi had responded to his contact, some fundamental boundary had been crossed.
“You’re angry,”Asher observed after several minutes.
“I’m disgusted,”Levi replied without turning around.
“With me, or with yourself?”
The question hit too close to home. Levi was disgusted with both of them—Asher for what he’d done, but himself for how heresponded.
“Both,” he admitted.
“There’s no shame in pleasure,”Asher said.“Even when it comes from unexpected sources.”
“There’s shame in taking pleasure by force.”
“I didn’t force you to enjoy it.”
Levi stopped walking and spun around, rage overriding his shame.“You held your hand over my mouth and touched me without permission while I was trapped and terrified! How is that not force?”
Asher’s mouth quirked as he considered the question.“You could have fought harder. You could have tried to get away.”
“I was pinned against a wall.”
“You could have bit my hand. Kneed me. You chose not to.”
Chose not to.As if his freeze response was a conscious decision. As if being too scared to fight back was the same as consent.
“That’s not how consent works,”Levi said through gritted teeth.
“Isn’t it? You responded to me. Your body wanted what I was giving you. How is that different from saying yes?”
The question was so fundamentally wrong that Levi didn’t know where to begin. But before he could formulate a response, a new sound echoed through the corridors.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow, deliberate applause coming from somewhere ahead of them.
They both froze, listening. The clapping continued, measured and mocking, echoing off the concrete walls.
“Someone’s alive,” Levi breathed.
But as they followed the sound through the corridor’s twists and turns, Levi couldn’t shake the feeling that they were walking into another trap.
The applause stopped abruptly, leaving only silence and the distant hum of the building’s mechanical heart.
What the hell is waiting for us?
Whatever they found ahead, Levi knew that everything had changed. The dynamic between them shifted in ways he didn’t fully understand, and the shame of his own response was eating him alive.
I came in his hand,he thought with renewed horror.I came while those things were hunting us.
And the worst part was, he wasn’t sure he’d have the strength to resist if Asher tried it again.
25
Monster Index
