Page 138 of Immersed
He disappeared into the adjoining bathroom, returning moments later with a damp cloth, the fabric warm and soft. He cleaned away the evidence of their coupling, his touch clinical but not impersonal—careful wipes along sensitive skin, soothing the lingering ache without rushing, his eyes tracing Levi’s body with that obsessive reverence. “You were incredible,” he whispered. “So open, so responsive... mine.”
When he finished, he tossed the cloth aside and rejoined Levi on the bed, immediately pulling him back into his arms, bodies aligning in a tangle of limbs. One hand idly traced patterns across Levi’s skin, possessive even in the quiet aftermath, fingers mapping the bruises and flushed areas as if committing them to memory.
“What happens now?” Levi asked, reaching out to trace the line of Asher’s jaw.
“Now we rest,” Asher said, his arm tightening around Levi. “Then we face whatever’s waiting for us in Faine’s sanctum.”
Levi shook his head, persistent despite his weariness. “I meant us. What happens to...” He gestured vaguely between them, unable to find words for whatever the toxic blend of obsession, violence, and intimacy was.
Asher’s expression darkened slightly, a shadow crossing his features. “We stay together,” he said, the words a command rather than a suggestion, his grip firming on Levi’s waist. “Whatever comes next, we face it together.”
“And if the game ends?” Levi pressed, his voice gaining strength. “If we find a way out?”
Something flashed in Asher’s eyes—panic, genuine and raw, a vulnerability that cracked his usual facade. “It won’t end,” he insisted. “Not for us.”
The certainty in his voice was unsettling, as was the flash of panic that had preceded it. Levi studied his face, searching for clues to the fear that seemed to have momentarily overwhelmed Asher’s usual confidence.
“You’re afraid,” he realized aloud, the insight hitting like a revelation. “Of losing me. If the game ends.”
Asher’s jaw tightened, the admission clearly difficult for him, his eyes flickering away briefly before returning with fierce intensity. “I’ve lost you a dozen times already,” he croaked out. “Watched you die. Watched you reset. But you always come back to me.” His fingers traced the mark on Levi’s neck, his thumb pressing into the faded bruise. “You always remember.”
“And you think that would change? If we escaped?”
“I think,”Asher said carefully,“that some things aren’t meant to exist outside this place. This game, as you call it.”
Asher might be one of those things. A creation of the game, not meant to exist beyond its boundaries.
I don’t know what life is going to be like without him.
Levi’s hand rose to cover Asher’s, where it rested against his neck.“We’ll figure it out,”he said, surprising himself with the sincerity in his voice.“Together.”
Asher smiled weakly and pressed a kiss to the tip of Levi’s nose. “Together.”
Hours later, reality crashed back with the unwelcome sounds of rumbling in the walls. They were still trapped in the sanitarium. Still facing whatever horror awaited them in Faine’s inner sanctum. The brief respite they’d been granted was just that—temporary, fleeting.
Levi reluctantly extracted himself from Asher’s embrace. They dressed in silence, the comfortable intimacy they had found giving way to focused preparation for whatever came next.
As Levi fixed his clothes, he caught Asher watching him with that intense, predatory focus that still sent shivers down his spine. But now, alongside the fear, ran a current of something else—recognition, acceptance, even a disturbing kind of comfort in being the object of such attention.
“What?”he asked when Asher continued staring.
“Nothing,”Asher replied as his hand rose to cup Levi’s cheek, his thumb brushing gently across his lower lip.“Just memorizing how you look right now. In case...”He didn’t finish the sentence.
Levi leaned into the touch, allowing himself one more moment of connection.“We’ll find each other again,”he said quietly.“We always do.”
Asher’s smile was small but genuine. He leaned in, pressing a final kiss to Levi’s lips before stepping back.
“Ready?”he asked, gesturing toward the door that would lead them back into the sanitarium’s nightmare.
Levi nodded, squaring his shoulders.“Ready.”
Together, they stepped out of their temporary sanctuary and into the darkness awaiting them.
46
The Bad Guy Monologues
Thecorridorgleamedwithmetal and pulsing lights, wires snaking along the walls like exposed veins. Each step echoed with hollow finality, the sound swallowed by the strange acoustics of the passage.
