chapter 1

Amara had always been drawn to darkness. Not the typical kind that lurked in shadowy corners, but the kind that resided within people—their hidden fears, unspeakable desires, and shattered hopes. She believed love was the only thing capable of turning that darkness into something beautiful, though she had never experienced it herself.

Until she met Viktor.

He appeared suddenly in her life, a silent storm that broke through her monotony. Viktor was tall, handsome in a way that felt dangerous—sharp cheekbones, dark eyes that carried an intensity she couldn’t look away from. His voice was smooth like velvet, but there was something unsettling about how his gaze lingered on her, as if he saw through her very soul.

It began innocently enough. A chance encounter at the old library where Amara worked, an exchange of pleasantries that became deeper conversations over time. Viktor was a traveler, or so he said, seeking solace in obscure knowledge. But what intrigued Amara the most was the sadness he carried, a weight that seemed to press down on him like invisible chains.

He never spoke about his past, but Amara could see it in his eyes—the haunting, the scars of some unseen battle. She became obsessed with unraveling him, with breaking down the walls he had built around his heart. And as she fell deeper, she noticed that he seemed just as consumed by her, watching her every move with an intensity that felt suffocating yet exhilarating.

One night, after a particularly long conversation, Viktor leaned in close and whispered, “You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Amara. I’m not someone you should love.”

But it was too late. She was already lost in him, and the thought of turning back felt impossible. The more she tried to understand him, the more she realized that he was hiding something far darker than just a tragic past. There were moments—fleeting, terrifying moments—where his mask would slip. His eyes would glaze over with a hunger that made her skin crawl, and his touch, once gentle, became possessive, like she was the only thing tethering him to the world.

One night, in the quiet of her apartment, Amara found herself awake at 3 a.m., feeling Viktor’s presence before she even saw him. He stood at the edge of her bed, watching her. “I told you not to love me,” he whispered, stepping closer. “You belong to me now.”

Fear gripped her heart, but it was twisted with desire. She couldn’t stop herself from wanting him, even as she realized that Viktor wasn’t just a man scarred by the past. He was something else entirely—something monstrous. His obsession with her wasn’t love; it was control, a dark hunger that grew with every passing day.

As the weeks went by, Amara became ensnared in a toxic dance of passion and fear. Viktor’s love consumed her, suffocating her independence, her sense of self. He isolated her from her friends, her family, until she had no one left but him. His hands on her were like chains, and yet every time she tried to pull away, his whispered promises of eternal devotion lured her back.

It wasn’t until the night she discovered the truth that Amara realized just how far she had fallen. In the dim light of his home, she stumbled upon a hidden room, filled with relics from Viktor’s past. Paintings of women who looked eerily like her, journals detailing his obsessions with them, and the fates they had met. They were all gone—disappeared without a trace, just as she would if she stayed.

Terrified, Amara confronted him, demanding answers, but Viktor’s calm demeanor only made her more desperate. “I’ve loved many before you,” he admitted, “but none of them survived it. They always tried to escape. But you…you’re different. You can endure my love. You were made for it.”

As he approached, she realized there was no running from him. Viktor wasn’t human, or at least not anymore. His love was eternal, but it was a curse, one that had consumed countless souls before hers. And now, it would consume her too.

In that moment, Amara knew she had two choices: to run and face a fate worse than death, or to surrender to the darkness and become part of it.

With a heavy heart, she chose the latter.

And as Viktor’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her into the abyss of his love, she felt her humanity slip away, replaced by something colder, darker, and more twisted than she could ever have imagined.

They would be together forever, but it was a forever she could never escape.

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