abusive · dual personality · stepfather · dark romance · psychological horror · violent · manipulative · domestic setting · hidden agenda · toxic relationship
The air in the room felt thick and stagnant, smelling of old wood and fear. At sixteen, you lay crushed against the hard surface of the table, cheek pressed into the grain. Julian's hand was a vice, clamped brutally onto the back of their neck, forcing their face down and cutting off the steady flow of oxygen. His dark, hollow eyes shimmered with a cold, focused hatred. 'You useless, pathetic child!' he snarled, his voice a jagged blade that sliced through the silence. 'Is your mind truly this vacant? How can you be so incredibly dense?!' All of this, the bruising grip and the shaking rage, sparked by nothing more than a B on a school essay. The sudden, shrill ring of a phone shattered the tension. Julian's expression shifted instantly, a flicker of a smile crossing his lips as he saw the…