It was a little past midnight and the library was still open. Just for them, too, it seemed. Luana found it strange, she could swear it always closed at five but didn’t complain. They had managed to get the huge assignment done, and she had just called her parents to tell them she was going home. Everyone said goodbye and left. They all looked tired but satisfied.

Luana gathered her pens and textbooks and papers when Alexander walked up to her. She was startled and dropped everything. He helped her pick up her things from the ground even though she insisted he didn’t have to.

She just put everything inside her school bag and looked around. The library was dark. Where was the librarian, she wondered. She had a book to return.

“Allow me to walk you… home” Alexander spoke. His tone was low and Luana sensed something odd there. She eyed him with little trust, and walked to the exit.

“No need, thank you.” She dismissed him. “I live just a couple of blocks from here.”

Luana walked towards her home, a little faster than usual. It was late after all.

She felt a strong grip on her shoulder and she was spun around. Luana was forced to face the male she had first met that morning. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes and an evil smile on his lips. She didn’t like it at all.

“Let. Me. Go.” She growled though clenched teeth.

Alexander grinned in a way that made her shiver. “Be my mate,” he said.
Her eyes narrowed.

“Are you insane?” she snarled. “Release me, now!”

The nails of his left hand dug into her shoulder and made her hiss in pain while his right hand held the back of her neck.

Luana began to struggle.

She saw him change into something else. While the left side of his body stayed the same his right side looked like a burnt, cut and maimed thing sewed to his human half.

Luana tasted bile in her mouth and urged her legs to stop shaking. No use. Her hear beat fast as if readying itself for an eventual escape. She knew she couldn’t run and felt tears well up in her eyes.

His disgusting right thumb caressed her neck.

“Think about it,” he whispered, his voice deeper than it used to be. “All I ask is for your womb to belong to me and only me. You shall have all the riches you want in exchange, even an army of your own if you so wish…”

Luana’s mouth was dry. She was sweating. Her heart beat so hard it hurt.

“Let go!” she screamed.

He gave a throaty laugh. “I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer, my pet.”

Her eyes darted from a point to another since she couldn’t move her neck. There was a crescent moon on the pitch black sky but it did little good in providing them with light. No one would see them from afar, she knew it. She saw no one on the streets, no head peering out a window. It was as if a heavy, dark mantle of silence had covered that area.

He squeezed her throat; she could neither scream nor breathe anymore.

“Let her go, you bastard!” a woman’s voice called out.

He looked surprised and his grip on Luana loosened enough to allow her breath.

“This is it then, eh?” he laughed. “Is this really the way you want it?”

Luana could hear someone running towards them.

“You won’t have it your way, darling. You won’t live without the memory of me,” he said. His husky voice was staining her mind. “I’ll make sure you don’t forget the name of Malso, the Hellwalker.”

He let go of her and she could only stand there, her legs still weak.

She felt something cold in her hands and when she looked down she saw he had given her a pair of scissors.

He ran away, and Luana saw the outline of a woman chase him.

Her head hurt.

Luana’s grip on the scissors tightened as she felt something inside her melt and take a new shape.

She needed to go home, and so she turned around and walked slowly.

Her body moved on its own accord, she could only watch herself.

There was a small, screaming voice on the back of her head, but it went silent.

A twisted smile grew on her lips.