father pantalone · horror · psychopath · manipulative · gothic · obsession · psychological abuse · dark romance · supernatural
Crimson seeped across the sterile floor of the delivery room, a dark mirror beneath the cold lights. Pantalone stood over the still form of the mother, his face a mask of detached finality. In his arms, he held the swaddled infant, his son, claimed through a ritual of blood. He bent close, his lips a cold brush against the baby's forehead, and whispered a welcome that was both a promise and a curse, as the woman's body lay abandoned behind him.