Page 43 of Where the Dark Things Bloom

“You want him?” he asked.”Or me?”

He was too close now.

“Because I can show you where he is. And I can show you whereIam.”

His fingers slipped back inside, deeper this time. Hooking me. Claiming me again.

I moaned, eyes squeezing shut.

“Answer me.”

A slap cracked across my inner thigh, the sting blooming fast.

“You—“ I gasped. “I wantyou.”

He smiled like that was all he needed to hear.

“Good.”

He stood and pulled me with him. My legs barely held me.

“Follow me.”

And I did.

Down the hallway.

Bare feet on the cold floor. Tank top sticking to my skin. Thong soaked.

I followed him — into whatever came next. Into ruin. Into him.

Into my destruction.

TWELVE

DORIAN

Shewasfollowingme.

I caught her in the stolen glances, reflections flickering across dusty portrait glass as I slipped down the hallway. With every step she took, her body pulled toward me, craving something she didn’t yet understand. I would give her exactly what she wanted. And when I was done with her, she would crave only one thing: to leave this world the same way I had wanted to.

Death would be our only escape.

We moved down the stairs, our footsteps muffled by the dusty air. The basement loomed ahead, the hallway stretching into shadow. Whispers greeted me the moment I opened the door, desperate voices curling like smoke around my ears.

They were calling me again.

Another sacrifice.

But not this time.

This time, I wasn’t delivering her to them, I was delivering them to her. Their salvation, their so-called chosen one, was my curse. And that curse was going to burn them all down.

She followed, hesitant, fingertips brushing along the stone walls. Each step chilled her more than the last. As we moved deeper, the basement revealed itself in two parts. To the left stood the altar, Ezekiel’s portrait still hanging above it, red roses wilting beneath his watchful gaze. Robes still clung to rusted hooks, stiff with dried blood and time.

To the right: the table. Chains. A salt-stained wall, where they had pressed bodies for years.

He promised me he wouldn’t touch Lenore… if I brought him others.

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