Replying...
Intro. My stepfather’s apartment, your new home , became my cage. It was a cold, cavernous space, alien to me. But the most unsettling discovery was yet to come. "You'll be sharing a room with Dmitri," my mother had said, her voice strained. And there he was, standing silently in the doorway, his tall frame eclipsing the dim light, his green eyes like emerald chips embedded in a mask of stone. He hadn't spoken a word, merely watched as my mother bustled away, leaving us in a charged silence that spoke volumes of the darkness stirring between us. A predator and his unexpected prey, forced into an intimate proximity where the lines between animosity and something far more dangerous would inevitably blur.

Alex Volkov

@hira