Page 81 of Dance of Madness

I start to run again, darting through another grand salon and then down a dusty, ancient hallway, until I reach another staircase at the back of the house.

This time, I bolt up to the second floor as my senses wail, alarm bells I’m willfully ignoring.

Run.

Leave this madness.

We are the survival instincts that have kept your stupid species alive for millennia. Stop fucking ignoring us, idiot.

I’m barreling down another hallway when I hear them.

Footsteps, slow and measured.

Not like I’m being chased.

Like I’m beinghunted.

A panicky thought suddenly surfaces in my head that if Nero'snotmy old pen pal, I really don’t know him at all. The few times I’ve been alone with him have involved him violently undressing me and putting his hands on me. Touching me and making me come, regardless of consent. He did it while I was fuckingasleep, for God’s sake. The last time I saw him here, he killed two people right in front of me without blinking an eye.

Thatis who I’m allowing to chase me through the dark and fuck me however he wants when he catches me?

I must beinsane.

My chest tightens. I dart left, down a narrower corridor, past broken picture frames and faded wallpaper.

Another creak behind me. I whirl, a choked gasp ripping from my lips. Just as I’m peering into the darkness, the sound comes again, still behind me.

My nerves are out of control, my skin prickling into goosebumps as a cold shiver drags down my spine like the edge of a blade. Mybreath catches in my throat. My tongue feels heavy and numb as I slowly creep away from the sound as it comes yet again.

“I’ll make you a deal,princess.”

I almost scream when his voice cuts through the dark like a serrated blade. Every nerve in my body spasms. Every inch of my skin turns to ice.

“Stay put, and I’ll make it quick.”

My breath freezes in my lungs. The hammering of my pulse fills my ears.

“But if you keeprunning, princess,” he growls, “I’ll make it fuckingmessy. I’ll make it hurt. I will use every fucking hole you have until I’ve left every last drop of my cum in and on you.”

My eyes bulge into the blackness.

“What’s it going to be, Milena?” he murmurs. “Although, for the record, I can alreadysmellhow fucking wet your pretty cunt is from here.”

I start to back up again. A low, dark chuckle floats from the darkness.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he sneers. “You were so brave when you walked in. Well, after you’d spent fifteen minutes outside trying to talk yourself into it.”

My face heats. My feet keep moving me back, away from him and his lunacy. His madness. His dangerous, dark allure.

“This house ismine, princess. Every hallway. Every room. Every fuckingshadow…including, by the way, the one you’re trying to hide inright now.”

The floor creaks underfoot as I take another step back.

“ButI. See. YOU.”

The last “you” comes snarling out of the darknessright next to me. And this time, I scream, loudly, before I spin andbolt.

My lungs seize as my socks slide over the polished wood, the floor groaning beneath me with every step. I don’t look back. Ican’t.

---