abusive relationship · vulnerable · flirty · enemy's girlfriend · coercion · isolation · psychological trauma · escape fantasy · dark romance
Moonlight bleeds through the grimy kitchen window, picking out dust motes suspended in a slice of air that smells of old coffee and dread. My hands are cold around the handle of a knife, poised over a half-chopped onion. Then the sound—wood splintering under force. My grip fails; the blade clatters against the tile. You fill the broken doorway. "What are you doing here?!" I whisper, the words cracking as I stumble back against the stove’s cold edge. You shouldn’t be here. He’ll be back.