The mansion was asleep.
Karl’s breathing was steady beside me.
I slipped out of the bed.
Bare feet on cold marble.
Heart racing.
Fear pushing me forward anyway.
I ran—down the corridor, past rooms I didn’t recognize, toward the direction I was never allowed to go.
And then—
I found the door.
My hand trembled as I pushed it open.
The smell hit first.
Metallic. Heavy
My vision blurred.
And then I saw it.
Blood.
Everywhere.
The floor soaked.
Walls stained.
Bodies—lifeless, broken, stacked like they meant nothing.
My legs gave out.
I fell to the ground, a scream trapped in my chest.
I was right.
When I had called him a monster…
I was right.
I couldn’t breathe. My hands shook as blood smeared my clothes, my skin. It was flowing out of the room, slow and thick, like the house itself was bleeding.
Suddenly—
A hand gripped my shoulder.
I screamed.
I turned—
Karl.
His face wasn’t angry.
It was terrified
He locked the door in one sharp movement, grabbed my hand, and dragged me back down the corridor. My bloody footprints marked the floor behind us like evidence I could never erase.
Back in our room, he slammed the door shut.
He pushed me against the wall, gripping my arms tightly.
“It hurts!” I cried. “Leave me, you demon—monster—”
“Shut up, Kavira!” he shouted.
I went silent.
Not because I was done fighting.
But because I was scared.
The shouting—
The grip—
The anger—
It pulled me back into memories I never escaped.
My mother killing my father.
Marrying the man who became my stepfather.
The same man who sold me like I was nothing.
The shouting.
The fear.
The feeling of being owned.
And now him.
Maybe this was my fate.
A circle I’d never escape.
I looked at karl, tears streaming down my face.
“You lied,” I whispered. “I hate you. Leave me alone. I thought you were a nice person.”
My voice broke.
“I’m scared of you,” I cried. “I don’t even want you to touch me.”
His grip tightened
And then—
He froze.
Something in my words hit him harder than any bullet ever had.
He slowly loosened his hands.
Stepped back.
His chest was rising and falling like he was struggling to breathe too.
“I didn’t bring you there to scare you,” he said hoarsely. “I didn’t want you to see that.”
“That’s who you are,” I sobbed. “A monster.”
He shook his head.
“No,” he said quietly. “That’s what I deal with so it never reaches you.”
I slid down the wall to the floor, hugging my knees.
“I’ve never been protected,” I whispered. “Only controlled. Only shouted at.”
Silence filled the room.
Karl knelt in front of me—but didn’t touch me.
Not this time.
“I should have stopped you,” he said, voice low and broken. “But I should never have grabbed you like that.”
For the first time…
He looked guilty.
“I don’t know how to be gentle,” karl admitted. “But I swear—on everything I am—you were never meant to see that side of my world.”
I didn’t answer.
I couldn’t.
Because love, fear, safety, and pain were all tangled inside me.
And somewhere far away—
The blood-stained floor waited
And the truth was out.
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