It was morning, the kind of morning where the sunlight didn't pour in gently but crawled slowly up the walls.
The sunlight slide across the floorboards, lifting itself onto the bed until it finally reached Aurelia's face, warming her skin in a soft gold that made every small detail of her features stand out in the quietness of the room.
Yet she slept on, her breathing steady, her expression calm, as if she were somewhere far away from this place entirely.
Click...
The door opened without a knock.
The hinges breathing out a long tired sigh as Calvus stepped inside, moving with the strange mix of confidence and hesitation that always followed him around her.
His steps slow, calculated, as if he had been standing behind the door for hours waiting for the exact moment the sun touched her.
He stood still for a moment, letting the silence pull him in, letting the sight of her pull him deeper, and there was nothing soft or gentle in his stare, only a heavy, obsessive intensity that clung to every part of her face.
He feared blinking would make her disappear, like her existence was something fragile and he was the only one who noticed it.
She belonged to Tenebrarum, that was the truth, the law, the reality he could never change.
Calvus had nothing but this fierce, an impossible pull toward Aurelia that refused to leave him, each day it settled deeper into him like a stone sinking down a well and now that he was surely it was her all he wanted was her.
To him she wasn't a lover or a fantasy or a treasure, she was a problem he couldn't solve, a presence he couldn't tear his mind away from no matter how he tried, and it made something restless ,something he need to end.
He moved closer to her, the floor beneath him creaking softly, the air thickening as if the room itself sensed the tension in him, and he leaned slightly forward studying her.
He watched the rise and fall of her chest, the faint twitch of her fingers, the softness of her lashes resting on her cheeks
Aurelia didn't know he was there, didn't know how deeply she had already carved her place into his thoughts.
He exhaled slowly, eyes glued to her face as if it held answers he'd been chasing for years, and in the quiet morning light, with the door at his back and Aurelia asleep before him.
Calvus let himself drown in that dark, consuming curiosity that no one—not even he—fully understood, he wanted her in-between the sheets.
Aurelia's eyes opened slowly.
Her vision still hazy as morning light warmed her face, and the moment she saw him standing there—Calvus, she jolted upright, breath tightening in her chest.
"What are you doing here" she demanded, her voice sharp, her body moving back as if distance alone could protect her.
Calvus didn't answer, didn't blink, didn't even pretend to be startled by her sudden movement, he just stared at her with that heavy, unsettling intensity, the kind that felt like fingers gripping the air around her, the kind that told her he had been standing there long before she opened her eyes, quietly watching.
"I swear that when Lord Tenebrarum comes back I'll tell him of your recent behaviour, he'll cut off your neck" Aurelia snapped, her voice shaking with anger and a hint of fear, her eyes burning into Calvus as she moved back from him, refusing to let him feel superior even for a breath.
Calvus didn't flinch, didn't blink, didn't even look threatened, instead his lips curved into something twisted, something almost thrilled, something that made her skin crawl in the worst way.
"I have something to show you" he said, his voice thick and uneven, still stained with alcohol.
Before she could step away he grabbed her wrist, his fingers tight and warm around her skin, and he dragged her out of the room, pulling her after him with a force that sent her body stumbling forward, her balance breaking as her bare feet skidded across the floor.
Aurelia gasped, twisting, fighting,even hitting his shoulder with the side of her arm but he didn't release her, he only tightened his grip, his steps loud and heavy as he yanked her through the hallway.
Where is Tenebrarum?
Just now her chest squeezed with a sudden desperate thought, a thought she hated herself for—
She wished Tenebrarum were here.
She wished that monstrous man with all his power and cruelty would appear, because at least she could predict Tenebrarum's danger.
But Calvus—
She didn't know him.
Didn't know what madness lived behind his eyes.
"Where are you taking me" Aurelia hissed, her voice shaking as she tried to pull her wrist free, her nails dragging against the wall as he pulled her faster
"Let go— Calvus— let me go—"
But he didn't stop.
The house felt too quiet, too empty, too far from help, every corner echoing with the sound of her dragged footsteps and his uneven breathing and the pounding of her own terrified heart.
And she could not tell if the cold rising through her was fear—
or fury—
or the awful truth that she was truly, completely at his mercy until Tenebrarum returned.
He took her to the stable, where the horses were kept, the air thick with the sharp stink of hay and sweat and something far worse.
The floor uneven beneath her feet as she tried to keep up with his grip, the boards shifting under her weight, only for something soft and cold to give way beneath her step.
Slamp!
A sickening squish rising through Aurelia's feet as the slime spread between her toes, her stomach twisting violently while she stared down at the smear of dark muck clinging to her skin, the stench rising so sharply it almost made her choke.
her breath catching in her throat as the realization struck her in one brutal wave.
No...disgusting !
Her mind screamed in pure horror.
She had just stepped barefoot in horse droppings, the filth coating her toes, sinking into the tiny spaces between them as she staggered back, her whole body shivering with revulsion, wishing she could peel her own foot off just to escape the feeling that crawled up her leg like something alive.
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To be continued...