Evaline:
Charles!
Relief surged through . It was raw, instinctive, and overwhelming in the best way possible.
For a split second, everything else faded - the cold, the stung of silver - none of it mattered.
What mattered was that Charles had found . He’s here. He-
The feeling died.
Just like that.
As quickly as it had co, it twisted into sothing else entirely. Sothing cold, sothing sharp, sothing wrong.
Because the look on his face, it wasn’t relief, neither was it concern. It wasn’t anything close to what I had expected.
No.
It was calm. He looked too calm, and beneath that calmness, there was sothing else, sothing dark... and satisfactory.
Instead of looking like a friend worried for my safety, he looked more like soone who had just watched a plan fall perfectly into place.
My breath hitched as the painful realization hit cold and sharp, and the fragile thread of hope inside snapped.
He wasn’t here to save .
Actually, he was the one who put here.
The realization slamd into with such force that for a mont, I couldn’t breathe. I just stared at him. Frozen. My mind refused to catch up, refused to accept what I was seeing.
No.
This can’t be possible.
Not Charles.
Not him.
But the truth was right there. It scread at as I stared into his eyes, or watched the way he stood there watching like I wasn’t soone he cared about... but sothing he had claid.
A muffled sound tore from my throat.
I tried to speak, tried to demand an answer, but the cloth tied around my mouth swallowed every word, turning it into nothing more than a broken noise.
I struggled, instinctively and desperately, only for pain to explode through my wrists as the silver bit deeper into my skin. And the sharp sting forced a strangled cry out of .
"Easy," he said, sounding calm... almost amused. Like my pain ant nothing. Like it was expected.
He crouched down in front of , setting the candle aside.
The light flickered, casting shadows across his face and making him look even more unfamiliar, even more dangerous.
His hands reached for , for the cloth covering my mouth and he untied it. His movents were so slow and deliberate as if he was in no hurry at all.
The mont it loosened, I gasped.
Air rushed into my lungs, sharp and desperate. My chest rose and fell as I tried to steady my breathing.
I coughed, feeling an imdiate burn in my throat. But I didn’t care. I pushed against the ground, trying to sit up... but it was another mistake.
Pain shot through my wrists again as the silver restraints dug deeper into my skin, and a broken sound escaped .
Then, his hands were on . Helping and supporting , but I flinched violently, jerking away from him... or at least I tried to.
"Don’t touch !" I rasped, my voice weak but sharp.
The contact had been brief, barely a second, but it was enough for that familiar sensation to wash over . It was that sa wrongness that had been haunting all afternoon.
It surged back stronger than ever.
It was him.
It had always been him.
And I had ignored it. Missed it. I trusted him too much to ever think he had anything to do with what I kept sensing.
My stomach twisted.
I forced myself to look at him again. This ti, I really looked at him, and now... I saw it - not just the face I had grown familiar with, but sothing beneath it.
Sothing that didn’t belong.
Sothing that made my skin crawl.
"Why...?" My voice broke slightly. "Why did you do this, Charles?"
The smile on his lips disappeared the instant I finished speaking. It was gone so quick as if it had never been there.
His hands shot forward and grabbed my shoulders tightly. And the sudden movent made gasp.
"Stop calling that," he said.
His voice... it wasn’t the sa. It was deeper now, colder, sharper, almost familiar. And it sent a chill straight down my spine.
I stared at him, feeling confused and terrified.
"What-?"
But before I could finish, the tension in his expression shifted again.
The smile returned to his lips. And this ti, it was slow, deliberate, and unsettling.
He let go of , as if nothing had happened. He tilted his head slightly and studied my face.
"Don’t you recognize ?" he asked softly.
My heart stuttered at the unexpected question. "What are you talking about?" I whispered.
He chuckled. The sound coming low and amused. "Really?" he said. "After all these years?"
A knot ford in my stomach - tight and unforgiving.
"Honestly, I thought you would know the mont you saw ," he continued, his voice almost thoughtful now. "I an... I knew you would take a little ti, considering the change... but this?"
He gestured to himself lightly.
"This is disappointing."
My breathing grew uneven. Each word he spoke felt like a piece of sothing falling into place... sothing I didn’t want to see, sothing I refused to accept.
"How could you not recognize ," he went on, inching closer again, "after everything we have been through?"
My pulse pounded harder.
"No..." I whispered, shaking my head weakly.
But he didn’t stop.
"How could you forget," he murmured, his voice dropping lower, "after all the ti we spent together?"
My stomach dropped and cold dread seeped into my veins.
"After all the love I gave you?"
The words echoed in my head - loud, deafening. Everything felt wrong. So wrong.
My heart started racing so fast I felt like it might jump out of my chest at any given second.
"No..." I said again, but it ca out weaker this ti. Because I knew... even before he said it, even before the final piece fell into place... a part of had already recognized him, ha already understood.
But I pushed it away and tried to bury that unsettling thought away. I refused to see it as a possibility. Because if I did... then this would be real.
And I couldn’t - I couldn’t face that.
Not again.
Not him.
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