Jayvion
"Page 67 of your manuscript, villains never beg, they claim" I told her. She gave me a wary look before sliding her hand into her bag and pulled out her manuscript. She flipped to page 67 and gasped in utter shock. I'd beautifully annotated the page with red highlighter. Red ink slashed like wounds through her pages.
"H-how did you get this?" She whispered , trembling. I smirked, a devastating slow dangerous smirk.
"Villains like me never ask for permission to correct things. They control. Shadows of Loss, chapter 14, page 103" I quoted the words from her book Shadows of Loss, lazily draping my hand behind the chair.
She stared at me jaws dropped, eyes widened as if I was a creature from outside world.
"You...you memorized?" She whispered in disbelief, her eyes as wide as the size of saucers.
I shook my head.
"I don't need to memorize the facts. They simply stick to me"
I leaned forward, my hands intertwined on the desk, the large black ring on my forefinger flickered under the golden light.
"i chose to remind you of the facts. You seemed to forget who villains really are" I added, my voice very low that I'm sure it vibrated to her head, her heart and every little part of her.
She let out a shuddered breath but she pinned me with a firm glare of defiance.
"Stay away from my work!"
"Or are you gonna tell the cops? Both you and I know that you wouldn't. Because I'll tell you what, Little Writer- You enjoy this as much as you're scared of it" the panic in her eyes was the single expression I need to confirm that I was right. She's scared of me yet she enjoys it.
She quickly shoved the manuscript into her bag and stood up.
"Stay. Away. From. My. Book!" She bit out every word while glaring at me but her voice betrayed her. Her eyes showed anger and defiance while her voice showed fear. Panic.
I grabbed her wrist before she could leave, my thumb tightly pressed on her pulse and I felt it spike.
"Relax Twyla. We're getting to the good part" my voice was a low murmur, so deep that could actually make her drown but my chest tightened as I said the name Twyla. Her breath hitched at the new nickname yet she jerked her hand off and stormed out of the bookstore.
I'd broken into her house and annotated her book while she was asleep. There are lots of errors than I cared to admit. It somehow infuriated me. If she wants to write about villains, she should do it right so, correcting her is the only option. She should be grateful not angry. Even though I very much enjoyed her anger. It makes her look so sexy that made me want to keep her being angry for as long as possible. She's gone now but my gut tells me she'll come back. I know she will. She's mine since three years ago. The moment she wrote about that amber-eyed villain from Shadows of Loss- Drake- She was mine.
Aurelia
Jayvion is crazy. He's a psychopath. I should have realized that the moment he gave me that pen that day. I can't even imagine the thought of him breaking into my house, sitting on my chair, annotating my manuscript in the middle of the night while I was asleep! Who the hell does that?! I could still feel his burning touch against my wrist as his last words echoed in my brain.
"Relax, we're getting to the good part Twyla"
Whatever Twyla meant, that'll be a question for another day.
I'd been home for a while but my house doesn't feel like my sanctuary anymore. My signature lavender and coffee felt compromised with his whiskey and sin scent. The most dangerous part is that I could still feel his presence in my room. He'd really got that powerful scent and aura that would annoyingly linger even after he's long gone. He was here, in my house, my safest place, where I can just be...me.
I switched the deadbolt lock in place before walking into my bedroom and I stopped right on my tracks when I sighted something... strange. He's been here, in my bedroom. I could feel it.
My body moved in autopilot towards my bedside table where that strange object, a red rose was lying next to a sleek black ink bottle. A note was attached to it, of course!
An elegant, handwritten note in rich blank ink decorated the card.
"The pen is refillable. Use it for as long as you need"
No initials but I don't need a ghost to tell me where it came from. I took the rose and inhaled. It smelled just like him; whiskey, gunmetal, sin and danger.
I let out a shaky breath.
My legs gave out and I collapsed on the floor, hugging my knees. The note and rose fisted in my hand. What should I do? What have I gotten myself into?
He's not here now. He was, but not anymore. My inner mind comforted. I let out a half-sob as a tear dropped from my eyes.
No! I refuse to let him have power over me. I refuse to let him control me. I refuse to let him scare me like that. I clenched my fist, trying to calm my racing heart, my eyes shut. When I opened them, I was not just Aurelia that is scared of her stalker, I am the writer to creates. The one who will rewrite her story because she finally realized, he was the villain she wrote about three years ago, innocently, unknowingly. He saw himself in her fiction and decided to claim the author but she won't let him do that.
Or maybe I do...?
I switched to full writer mode and walked into my study. Flipping the manuscript into page 67, I carefully noted how the red highlighter that looked like blood stained the pages. I ran my fingers through it, reading the notes his wrote at the margin.
"Nobody stabs left-handed. Try again" he'd written.
Annoyed, I picked up my phone and slid into his DM. His number still unknown.
"Page 68, left-handed or not, what matters is skill and precision"
I texted him. He replied almost immediately as though he was waiting for my message.
"Meet me tomorrow and I'll show you how real villains stab. Left-handed is for amateurs" a second passed and he dropped the address.
"And Little Writer? Wear that bracelet, I like it" he added.
That night, I laid awake. It's 12am but I couldn't sleep a wink. Not when there's a possibility of Jayvion sneaking in again. Why do I feel like I'm anticipating his arrival? Part of me wanted him to come. No freaking way! Pull yourself together, Aurelia.
I thought I could fight nature and stay awake until darkness swallowed me whole.
I woke up the next morning and two things are gone. My empty unrefilled pen and the illusion of being safe.