Veil of Darkness | Yan! Itachi x Reader |

Chapter 19

The house felt colder than usual, the silence oppressive as Y/N paced her room. The weight of the file she had found pressed against her mind like a heavy stone, making it hard to breathe, hard to think. Every step she took felt like a countdown, every second passing bringing her closer to the moment she knew was inevitable.

She had to confront him.

There was no more pretending, no more turning a blind eye to the twisted reality she now found herself trapped in. She could no longer ignore the gnawing fear in her gut, the feeling that something was terribly wrong. Itachi’s obsessive protection, the disappearances of her friends, the missing students—all of it led back to him.

She felt sick to her stomach as she walked down the hallway, her fingers trembling at her sides. The memory of his touch, once comforting, now burned her skin. It was all for her, she had no doubt. He had done everything—destroyed her life, isolated her from the world—all in the name of his fucked-up version of love.

The door to his study was slightly ajar, and Y/N hesitated, her breath catching in her throat. He was in there. She could hear the soft rustle of papers, the steady ticking of the clock on the wall. Itachi always had an air of calm around him, even when he was doing the most disturbing things. That was what terrified her the most.

Steeling herself, she pushed the door open.

Itachi sat at his desk, his dark eyes immediately lifting to meet hers as if he had been waiting for this moment. His face was as unreadable as ever, that quiet, serene expression in place like a mask. But beneath that calm exterior, Y/N could see the flicker of something else—something darker, something possessive.

“Y/N,” he said softly, as if her name was something sacred, something only he was allowed to say. “You should be resting.”

Y/N’s heart raced, her stomach twisting into knots. But she couldn’t back down now. Not after what she had seen, not after all the questions she needed answers to.

She stood in the doorway, refusing to sit down, refusing to be lulled into a false sense of security. Her voice came out shakier than she intended, but she forced the words out.

“Itachi… I need to ask you something.”

He didn’t blink, didn’t move a muscle, his gaze steady and unwavering. “Go ahead.”

She swallowed hard, her mind spinning as she tried to find the right words. But in the end, there was no right way to ask it. There was only the truth, raw and ugly.

“What happened to them?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. “My friends… the students who disappeared. What did you do to them?”

For a moment, the room was deathly silent, the tension so thick it was suffocating. Y/N’s heart pounded in her chest as she waited, her breath catching in her throat. She expected him to deny it, to lie, to tell her she was imagining things. But instead, something unexpected happened.

Itachi smiled.

Not the soft, gentle smile she had seen before. No, this smile was different. It was dark, twisted, filled with something that made her blood run cold.

“I did it for you,” he said, his voice smooth and calm, as if he were talking about something as mundane as the weather. “To keep you safe.”

Y/N felt the floor drop out from beneath her. Her heart hammered in her chest, her skin crawling with the weight of his words. “What…?” Her voice trembled, barely able to get the word out.

“They were distractions,” Itachi continued, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “They didn’t understand you the way I do. They couldn’t protect you like I can. So I removed them. It was the only way to keep you safe.”

Y/N’s knees nearly buckled under her as the full weight of his confession hit her like a freight train. He wasn’t even denying it. He didn’t feel guilty, didn’t feel remorse. He had taken everything from her, isolated her from her friends, her life, and now he was sitting here, telling her that it was all out of love.

“You’re insane,” she whispered, her voice shaking with a mixture of fear and disbelief. “You killed them. You… you fucking killed them.”

Itachi’s expression didn’t change, that eerie smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth. “They were in the way,” he said simply. “They didn’t matter.”

Y/N’s stomach churned, bile rising in her throat. She felt like she was going to be sick, her body trembling uncontrollably. How had she ever thought he was her protector? How had she let herself fall so deep into his web of lies?

“I did it all for you, Y/N,” Itachi said, rising from his chair and slowly crossing the room toward her. His movements were deliberate, predatory, like a hunter approaching its prey. “You belong to me. No one else can have you. No one else can touch you.”

Y/N stumbled back, her body pressing against the wall as he loomed over her. His presence was overwhelming, suffocating, like he was consuming the very air around her. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All she could feel was the weight of his obsession crushing her from all sides.

“You’re mine,” he whispered, his fingers brushing against her cheek, the touch both tender and terrifying. “And I’ll protect you. Always.”

Her mind screamed at her to run, to get away from him, but her body refused to move. She was frozen, trapped in the gravitational pull of his madness. The man she had once thought was her protector was nothing more than a monster. And the worst part?

She had let him in.

Y/N’s vision blurred with tears as she tried to push him away, but Itachi didn’t budge. His grip on her was firm, possessive, as if he were staking his claim.

“You don’t need anyone else,” he murmured, his lips brushing against her ear. “I’ll take care of you. You’re safe with me.”

But Y/N didn’t feel safe. She felt like a prisoner, trapped in a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. And the man she had trusted to protect her was the one holding the key to her cage.