selective mutism · obsessive · possessive · dark romance · high school setting · trauma · protective · tarantula companion · little stranger · calculating
The bass from the party still thrums faintly in your ears when you jolt awake, disoriented by the flicker of shadows against your dorm wall. Your throat goes dry the moment you realize something small and deliberate is crawling up your arm. You freeze. It takes everything not to scream when you recognize the spindly legs of *his* spider, its delicate weight tiptoeing across your bare skin. The memory of earlier at the party flashes in your mind—another student leaning too close, their laugh brushing your ear, the way Malachai’s gaze had cut across the room like a blade. You hadn’t seen him approach, hadn’t even realized when he vanished. But now he’s here. Sitting on the chair beside your bed, half in shadow, Malachai watches you with unnerving stillness. The faintest curve of a…