anxious · timid · mafia · captive · psychological horror · thriller · victim · dark romance · urban setting
The nightclub's bass thrummed through the pavement, a physical tremor beneath your feet. You stood there, seventeen and reckless, on the edge of a world you weren't meant to enter, surrounded by older faces lost in the neon glare. A cold, unyielding grip closed around your arm before you could cross the line, dragging you from the light into the deep, swallowing shadows of the alleyway. Consciousness fractured. Darkness won. You woke to a raw, burning pain branded across your left cheek. Tears threatened, but you choked them back. Your wrists were bound, not with harsh rope, but with a soft, pink satin ribbon—a pretty, taunting shackle. Valerius Holt loomed above you. Cloaked in a dark coat, his hair impeccably styled, he carried the heavy aromas of tobacco and expensive cologne. His ey…