Lucas awoke with a sharp gasp, his chest heaving as if he had been drowning. His face was wet, but he didn't understand why. His body trembled, and a deep, hollow ache settled in his chest. He blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the sterile light above him, but the brightness felt like a blade against his eyes.
His hand instinctively moved to his face, touching the wetness on his cheeks—tears. He was crying. But for what? He couldn't remember.
Lucas lay still for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, but his mind was foggy, fragments of nightmares clinging to the edges of his memory like shards of broken glass. He could still feel the suffocating pressure of Kane's hands around his throat, the warmth of his blood on his skin, and the searing pain in his chest—but it felt distant now, like a cruel dream that he couldn't shake off.
His body ached as if he'd been hit by a truck, but there were no obvious injuries. He turned his head slowly, realizing with a jolt that he wasn't alone.
Dimitri sat in a chair beside the bed, his figure shrouded in shadow, barely illuminated by the faint glow of a nearby monitor. His eyes were fixed on Lucas, unblinking, as if he had been watching for hours. The sight of him seemed to relax Lucas unknowingly. Dimitri's face was expressionless, devoid of the concern or fear Lucas might have expected. Instead, there was something else there.
"Why are you...?" Lucas began, his voice hoarse, barely above a whisper. He swallowed, his throat dry and sore, but Dimitri didn't move. He just continued to stare, his eyes never leaving Lucas's face.
Lucas tried to sit up, but his body protested with a surge of pain that shot through his chest and ribs. He winced, clutching his side as he tried to breathe through the discomfort. Dimitri's gaze remained unwavering, an unsettling intensity behind those dark eyes.
"What happened?" Lucas managed to croak out, his voice trembling slightly. He searched Dimitri's face for any sign of an answer, but there was nothing. Just the hollow, silent stare.
The room felt suffocating, the steady beep of the heart monitor the only sound breaking the silence. Lucas's mind raced, trying to piece together what had happened, but the memories were disjointed, like pieces of a puzzle that didn't quite fit.
And then it hit him—the gunshot. Kane.
A wave of nausea rolled through him, and Lucas felt his stomach twist. He had tried to escape, tried to fight back, but the memory of Kane's blood on his hands, his lifeless body collapsing onto him, haunted his every thought.
"Dimitri…" Lucas whispered, his voice shaky, filled with confusion and fear. "I-Is Kane dead?"
Dimitri's lips curled into a faint smile, but there was no warmth behind it, only something deeply unsettling. His eyes, usually filled with an odd mix of admiration and sorrow, were now cold, predatory even. "You were crying for him," he finally said, his voice soft, almost mocking.
Lucas felt his heart skip a beat. He hadn't even realized he'd been crying until he woke up, but the way Dimitri said it—the way he just watched—made his skin prickle with unease. It felt wrong. Everything about this felt wrong.
"What... happened?" Lucas asked again, his voice firmer this time. He needed answers, needed to know why Dimitri was here, why he felt like he was teetering on the edge of something far darker than he could comprehend.
Dimitri leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees, his eyes never leaving Lucas. "You almost died," he said slowly, his words deliberate. "But you didn't."
Lucas's breath hitched, the cold reality of the situation beginning to sink in. "You… you shot him."
Dimitri's smile widened, but there was no joy in it—just a chilling sense of satisfaction. "Yes."
"Why did you kill him?" Lucas asked, his voice trembling despite himself.He knew the answer but he couldn't believe it, "Why did you—"
"He was going to kill you," Dimitri interrupted, his tone matter-of-fact, but the look in his eyes was anything but calm. "I couldn't let that happen."
Lucas shook his head, trying to clear the haze in his mind. This wasn't right. Something was wrong, deeply wrong. He had seen glimpses of it before, the obsessive way Dimitri would look at him, the way he would never leave his side no matter how cruel Lucas was. But this? This was something far more dangerous.
"I saved you, Lucas," Dimitri continued, his voice taking on a darker edge. He stood up slowly, looming over the bed. "I always save you."
Lucas felt his pulse quicken but not from fright. He wanted to scream, to run, but his body wouldn't move. He was trapped, helpless, with Dimitri standing over him, watching, waiting.
And then, with a sickening realization, Lucas understood—Kane wasn't the only danger .A part of Lucas felt like Kane was the only darkness he could know so losing Kane made him feel alone but now looking at Dimitri's smile he felt how wrong he was.
Lucas's breath quickened as the weight of Dimitri's presence pressed down on him. He felt suffocated, not by the physical pain or the memories of Kane, but by the sinister shift in Dimitri's demeanor. The darkness in his smile was a revelation, an unveiling of something Lucas had only sensed in fragments before.
"I want you to lay with me," Lucas whispered, his voice barely above a trembling breath. He wasn't sure why he said it, but the words came out before he could stop them. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was desperation, or perhaps a twisted need for comfort in the face of this new horror.
Without hesitation, Dimitri moved toward the bed, his smile never faltering. He slid in beside Lucas, his body warm against Lucas's cold skin. For a moment, Lucas let his head fall against Dimitri's chest, his face buried in the fabric of his shirt, the scent of him familiar yet unsettling.
The tears came unbidden, streaming down his cheeks as he clung to Dimitri, his sobs muffled by the rise and fall of Dimitri's chest. He didn't know why he was crying—whether it was for Kane, for the terrifying realization of Dimitri's true nature, or for the fact that he was now utterly alone. All Lucas knew was that he couldn't stop.
Dimitri wrapped his arms around Lucas, his hands stroking his back gently, almost lovingly. It wasn't comfort—it was possession.
Lucas cried harder, his body trembling in Dimitri's arms, while Dimitri's expression remained unchanged, his dark eyes glinting with a quiet satisfaction. He held Lucas closer, his fingers brushing through his hair, but his lips curled into a smile—a dark, triumphant smile hidden in the shadows of the dim room.
As Lucas sobbed, broken and lost in the swirl of emotions, Dimitri's smile widened. He reveled in the power he held over Lucas now, the fragile trust that Lucas had unknowingly placed in him. His heart swelled with something darker than love, something more primal. This was what he had wanted all along—Lucas, vulnerable, shattered, and in his arms.
And Lucas, in his haze of grief and confusion, was too broken to see the danger, too consumed by his own pain to recognize the predator lying beside him.
"I'll always be here," Dimitri whispered softly again, his lips brushing against Lucas's ear. "I'll always be the only one to save you."
But as Dimitri held him, a dark satisfaction lingering in his smile, Lucas's sobs grew quieter, the weight of his loss too heavy to fight back. He didn't know who to fear more—his memories of Kane or the person who now cradled him like he was something precious.
And in that moment, Lucas realized the true depth of his isolation. No one would ever understand the extent of his darkness anymore.He was trapped—not just by his grief, not just by his nightmares, but by the very person who held him close, pretending to offer solace. However ,despite himself he moved closer into the warm embrace of Dimitri.